Themes in the book The Things They Carried

Document Type:Research Paper

Subject Area:Literature

Document 1

The themes are closely linked based on the same line of events most of the characters are involved. The themes in the book are accurate, achingly and plainly detailed. This paper is going to discuss these themes in details as they appear in The Things They Carried. Revenge. in the middle of a deadly war, one thing is clearly evident; revenge. Despite an unattractive action, he never shies away from telling them to the reader. Innocence. The destructive war in Vietnam preserves and defiles the innocence of the participating soldiers. Most of the battalions are made by young men who are still in their teenage years. Most of them had blond hairs and their skin was peachy. In this sense, the difference between war and death is very minimal.

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The importance of religion in the battlefield is illustrated not as a preservative but in the broader sense as an indication of the decency of soldiers when they are still alive. The two most decent men in the church are also the most religious men. These men are Kiowa and Henry Dobbins. They became a source of believe for most of the soldiers. They are therefore escapists. Most of them masturbated to the pictures of Jane Fonda, smoked bhang, played checkers and watched movies during their free time. They did this as a destruction from the reality of war, (Beach, 2017). The true meaning of The Things They Carried is derived here. The things the soldiers were made to carry contrary to their will sometimes.

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In most cases, the troubles become too much for them to carry. Jimmy Cross, a man facing the burden of taking care of the lives of his soldiers, is unable to make all of them safe, (Beach, 2017). The difficulties they bear are primal and in most cases close to those in the Bible. In the conversation that took place on page 76, a character refers to every sin in the Garden of Evil to be fresh and original. It weighs down the soldiers who are too young. The camp is filled with the promise of having beautiful women. They were even continually talking about going to Japan where there are lovely women nurses. The nurses are mainly used as a symbol of sex.

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They are the only sexual contact the soldiers get. When they come in to take care of the injured soldiers, they are the ultimate and dream women of the soldiers. He sees this as to having physical impossibility. The fear of shame also gives the soldiers the required motivation they need to go to war. Soldiers concern about how they will be accepted by the public an idea that might be seen as being out of place leads to the young soldiers coming up with stupid actions. Curt Lemon goes to the dentist to have his good tooth pulled out to ease the shame he will get for having fainted when he first visited the dentist. The youthful battalion is burdened by the stress of the war in a strange land of Vietnam leading to them developing psychological changes that result to them taking the unnecessary risk of participating in a fight.

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He instead focuses on exploring ways in which war stories creates a connection between the audience and the characters therein. The facts that mostly surrounded any happenings in the story were considered less significant as compared to the truth and the meaning which soldiers derive from it. The changes the soldiers go through after the happening of an event is also considered an important thing. Various storytellers in the book; O'Brien, Mitchell Sanders, and Rat Kiley are determined to showcase the ugly truth in war. The fact is so eminent in the storyline to the extent that it does not require factual evidence or even long unnecessary explanations. Soldiers had a close bond between them which is an expression of love equivalent to love found in friendship.

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When a soldier loses his life or even gets wounded, other members expressed their appreciation towards them through grief and empathy. In Vietnam, love became complicated when its objectives conflicted with the goals of the war. Rat Riley’s actions of wanting to survive first affected his love of the nation and patriotism, (Gwinup, 2014). Jimmy Cross puts his leadership responsibilities at bay endangering the lives of his blot because of a romantic love he has with a lady back home. Many soldiers were longing to have romantic love. Most of them went to the extent of masturbating using magazine pictures while others kept a dream of going to Japan to meet cute nurses to have romantic love with. Therefore, the ability of O'Brien to use many themes and skillfully connecting them with the lives of soldiers in war zones made the book a great piece of literature.

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