The Things They Carried Lyric Analysis

Tim O’Brien is a person who cannot seem to accomplish things that he really wants to do. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is about the author himself. He is intelligent and thoughtful yet it is difficult for him to move forward towards what he actually wants. The song “Stop and Stare” by One Republic relates to O’Brien greatly with his personality and thoughts in more ways than one. “Stop and Stare” expresses a tone of emptiness, regret, sorrow, nostalgia, fear, and darkness. The story behind it is someone trying hard, trying to be the best, and hopefully getting to where they want to be, not backing down because of what others think.
First of all, O’Brien had a problematic time when he is drafted. He, of course, did not want to go to war because he did not think it was right. He states himself that he “saw no unity of purpose, no consensus on matters of philosophy or history or law.” In the lyric it states a cliché, “Oh, can you see what I see” in line 16 which has a nostalgic and wistful tone. It relates to O’Brien because he sees and asks all these questions and wonders what exactly the war is since it does not seem to be helping for much anything. Even though he believes that it is wrong to go to war with Vietnam when conditions do not seem to be politically correct, O’Brien does not choose to speak up because he is still afraid of what people will say. Comparable to line 6 of the lyric which states a hyperbolic statement, “And every glance is killing me.” It fits with O’Brien yet again because he thinks that everyone is watching him, that if he makes a wrong move or, the main reason, does not go to war, he will be criticized; he will bring shame and disappointment to his family. O’Brien is mostly afraid of being a coward. Like in line 4 of the lyric, it says an idiom, “I’m staring down myself,” which means that he’s criticizing himself because everyone else is. If people were to assume that he was a weakling then he would start to believe it. As he criticizes himself with “smoldering self-pity,” it causes him to want to become something more yet he cannot seem to go where wants to go or to do what he wants to do.
O’Brien cannot choose whether to go to war or to flee to Canada which connects with the title of the song, “Stop and Stare.” This song relates to him with the song title because as he is choosing between the two, he has a difficult time picking. He flat out begins to shed tears as well because of the level of struggle and stress he kept within him which relates to line 3 of the lyric, “I’ve got my heart set on anywhere but here.” The tone of this quote is emptiness and hollowness. He is sitting in between Canada and the war. O’Brien wants to be somewhere else other than where he was on the rainy river. His heart is set to go to Canada yet his mind is telling him to go to war because of the criticisms he might intake from other people. Even if he believes the war is wrong, it was his only choice because of other people. In the lyric, it states a cliché, “I think I’m moving but I go nowhere” which more of how the song relates to O’Brien because he wants to go to certain places and obtain his dream, however, he cannot. After this event at the rainy river, he chooses to go to war. In line 11 of the lyric, it states a gloomy and regretful statement, “But I’ve become what I can’t be.” This links to O’Brien because he did not want to go to war, he did not want to see blood, he did not want to have to make the choice of war or shame. All he wanted to do was to fulfill his dream and attend Harvard. Nevertheless, he begins to take action after the war and begins to save himself. Finally, O’Brien begins to have control over his life again which is similar to line 5 of the lyric, “Steady hands, just take the wheel.” This shows that O’Brien is finally dominating his life again. He is taking the wheels to his life and steering it the way he wants to. Towards the end of the novel, O’Brien coincides with the idiom in the lyric of line 21, “Gonna run till you can’t walk,” because the quote means that he will keep going and going until he cannot go anymore. In addition, he is beginning to save himself by writing stories like the idiom in the lyric on line 19, “Untie the weight bags, I never thought I could.” It is an idiom because how could he have not untied the weight bags when all you had to do was untie them? This portrays that he is opening more doors and paralleling it to line 17 which personifies his senses. Line 17 states “They’re trying to come back, all my sense push.” It is a personification because his senses are coming back or pushing, the senses are given human abilities. Then it balances with O’Brien speaking about his past memories of when he was a 9 year old and met his first love, and when he was in the war, watching people die. He tells these stories to save himself; it is like the item he needs to keep him sane.
O’Brian becomes more in control as he goes through his novel. He begins with not being able to go to war and having internal conflict to saving himself from his old problems. O’Brien relates to the song “Stop and Stare” because he did not want to be where he was and he did not know exactly what he wanted but in the end, he began to figure it out and put the puzzle pieces together. He realized that it was as if “Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story.” He was trying to redo all his mistakes in the past by creating stories to tell.