The Things They Carried: An Analysis
Jared Miller
Lit& Comp
Horvath T,R
7/31/2013
Escape What is Real, Feel What is Right
Casualties, drugs, terror, violence, volatility, and mental instability are all well too common for any war. For the Vietnam War, it exceeded all of these. In The Things They Carried, all of the soldiers were faced with these burdening issues on a day-to-day basis, fearing for their lives, their perceived loved ones, and their own emotional sanity. Because this war put on a great deal of stress on the soldiers, there was an eagerness to escape the war and their life that they were fighting for. It got to the point where the war that they were fighting for turned into their mental wellbeing that they were fighting for. For the soldiers, there …show more content…
This led to the goal of making these conditions bearable. Ultimately, many of the soldiers used escapism by means of sexual longing, animating the dead, and drugs to elude the harsh reality of war. In other words, they were not living the life that they were actually living. Sexual longing in the war was a big point for many to keep in mind to escape the harsh reality of constant fear for ones own life. This was especially true for Mark Fossie, whom Rat Kiley talked about who shipped in his girlfriend in the story Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. During the late night in the midst of the perpetuating wild, Eddie diamond came up with the notion of bringing in a few “mama-sans” from Saigon (hookers) to help mitigate their sexual frustration. One of the soldiers embraced this idea and said “Hey, yeah, we pay our fuckin’ dues, don’t we?” (O’Brien 88). All of the soldiers felt they deserved an escape from their everyday work, and they sure needed their sexual frustration mitigated, but they knew that the reality of fulfilling this sexual desire was a bit of an outcry from reality. Eventually, this far-fetched benign idea …show more content…
Despair, longing, entrapment, and instability seem to be encased in the brain of a soldier. The moral of life is familiarity, love, sex, happiness, and stability and the moral of the soldiers is seeking all of these. O’Brien writes his stories with such vivid detail and imagery that allows the reader to effectively interpret what is going through mind of each individual in the story. It allows the reader to see how in The Things they Carried, the soldiers longed for sex, drugs, and keeping the dead alive. However, the biggest and most quintessential problem that these soldiers dealt with was finding ways to be able to bear the scent and putridity of war, being able to escape from hell, and being able to love when the love was just a fantasy. All of these soldiers dealt with these problems differently. Notably, escaping reality should have not been the first choice in some cases. By escaping reality through sexual longing, it led to distraction. By escaping reality through the usage of drugs, it led to a decrease in focus and increase in volatility. However, by escaping reality by animating the dead, it led to inner peace. Finally, by these soldiers escaping reality, it led to the uniqueness in each individual story, and the solutions and problems that came with every day life in a war
Lit& Comp
Horvath T,R
7/31/2013
Escape What is Real, Feel What is Right
Casualties, drugs, terror, violence, volatility, and mental instability are all well too common for any war. For the Vietnam War, it exceeded all of these. In The Things They Carried, all of the soldiers were faced with these burdening issues on a day-to-day basis, fearing for their lives, their perceived loved ones, and their own emotional sanity. Because this war put on a great deal of stress on the soldiers, there was an eagerness to escape the war and their life that they were fighting for. It got to the point where the war that they were fighting for turned into their mental wellbeing that they were fighting for. For the soldiers, there …show more content…
This led to the goal of making these conditions bearable. Ultimately, many of the soldiers used escapism by means of sexual longing, animating the dead, and drugs to elude the harsh reality of war. In other words, they were not living the life that they were actually living. Sexual longing in the war was a big point for many to keep in mind to escape the harsh reality of constant fear for ones own life. This was especially true for Mark Fossie, whom Rat Kiley talked about who shipped in his girlfriend in the story Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. During the late night in the midst of the perpetuating wild, Eddie diamond came up with the notion of bringing in a few “mama-sans” from Saigon (hookers) to help mitigate their sexual frustration. One of the soldiers embraced this idea and said “Hey, yeah, we pay our fuckin’ dues, don’t we?” (O’Brien 88). All of the soldiers felt they deserved an escape from their everyday work, and they sure needed their sexual frustration mitigated, but they knew that the reality of fulfilling this sexual desire was a bit of an outcry from reality. Eventually, this far-fetched benign idea …show more content…
Despair, longing, entrapment, and instability seem to be encased in the brain of a soldier. The moral of life is familiarity, love, sex, happiness, and stability and the moral of the soldiers is seeking all of these. O’Brien writes his stories with such vivid detail and imagery that allows the reader to effectively interpret what is going through mind of each individual in the story. It allows the reader to see how in The Things they Carried, the soldiers longed for sex, drugs, and keeping the dead alive. However, the biggest and most quintessential problem that these soldiers dealt with was finding ways to be able to bear the scent and putridity of war, being able to escape from hell, and being able to love when the love was just a fantasy. All of these soldiers dealt with these problems differently. Notably, escaping reality should have not been the first choice in some cases. By escaping reality through sexual longing, it led to distraction. By escaping reality through the usage of drugs, it led to a decrease in focus and increase in volatility. However, by escaping reality by animating the dead, it led to inner peace. Finally, by these soldiers escaping reality, it led to the uniqueness in each individual story, and the solutions and problems that came with every day life in a war