Character Analysis: 'Guilt And Burdens In The Things They Carried'

Hanatu Scott
Professor Shandor
English 1102
10/9/13
Guilt and Burdens in The Things They Carried
Contradictions, guilt, physical, and emotional burdens are pains that all human beings face throughout their lives. In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, this is no different. This novel is a collection of the adversities he and his comrades face while fighting in the Vietnam War. This collection comes with accounts from various perspectives, but each story has argument that provides a deeper understanding of the stories. Each story in The Things They Carried centers around the exaggerated truths each story presents. "Most of the time in Vietnam, there were some things that seemed just too terrible and strange to be true and others
The soldiers carry many of personal and war related items, but the most important thing they carry is mental burden (O’Brien 2). Although the characters are not the same, their stories are interrelated. O’Brien provides the readers with a description of physical and mental burdens they all carried. For instance, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross blamed himself for Ted Lavender’s death. He is the leader of the platoon, which means he is responsible for all the soldiers in his unit. His infatuation of Martha love lead to Ted Lavender’s death. “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (O’Brien 16). This realization motivated him to burn Martha’s picture in hope of lessening his guilt. It was only after burning Martha’s pictures he was able to focus on his tasks and being a good soldier. Another example is when Norman Bowker believes he failed his friend Kiowa who was killed when a mortar round hit and caused him to sink in the mud. He could not pull him out because he could not withstand the stink and thought he would sink too. Bowker could not find a way to make life meaningful after the war; he felt Vietnam robbed him of his will to live, so he took his life. O’Brien told us that Jimmy Cross was under so much guilt due to the incident,
Instead, the exaggerated truth is utilized in order make the reader clearly understand and feel the guilt and burdens of each character. He says, “I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth” (O’Brien 179). He knows that this is not proper storytelling, but it is necessary to “explain and clarify.” O’Brien wants to clarify the character motivations and what drives each characters decisions. It is through his search for clarity that he continues to exaggerate truth. Finally, O’Brien has a realization and confesses the reasons that he exaggerates is because, “In war you lose your sense of definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it’s safe to say that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true” (82). Making this connection, the reader is able to see O’Brien’s feelings and views and understand how each character is affected by the guilt and burdens of