Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Based on the cultural lens in the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the stories “Field Trip”, “The Man I Killed” and “On the Rainy River” shows how a community can expect some of the men to go to war and how the men are ashamed or embarrassed not to go to war like others because of the stereotypical pressure of the community. The men felt like they had to be in war and as a result losing who they are once they experience war. The examples from the chapters shows how the stereotypical expectation in society make the men ashamed and/or embarrassed and how they feel like they have to go to war. In the story “Field Trip”, the text shows an example of how some people in a community can expect a man to go to war and how it affects
Tim O’Brien felt like he had to be at the war because of people in his community and would have felt ashamed if he didn’t go to war. The war in some of the people of the communities eyes felt like the war was a privilege not a right to go to war, so that means that Tim has to think that the war is an immunity granted to him. He says about the man he killed, “He would have been taught to defend the land was man’s highest duty and highest privilege. He had accepted this...He could not picture himself doing the brave things his father had done, or his uncles, or the heroes of the stories.” (119) This shows how Tim O’Brien had the same complications as this young man he had killed. He had felt like he himself and the soldier could have been so much more and followed their dreams. The soldier and him felt the expectations of his community and family. When he said in the text that he had to do the brave things his family and the heroes had done that he had to follow the tradition and put his whole dream to the side just to fit into the communities expectations, which leads to the stereotypical pressure put on them to follow