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Fear And Shame In The Things They Carried

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Fear And Shame In The Things They Carried
In Tim O’Brien’s novel, “The Things They Carried”, fear and shame in the characters lead to several actions. For example, both fear and shame were motivating factors in the war. Some of the characters had a fear of being shamed by others, so they joined the war. O’Brien describes a personal experience he had involving fear and shame. After receiving his draft notice, O’Brien debates running away to Canada or staying to fight in the war. He ends up deciding to fight in the war because he fears being thought of as a coward by everyone else and the shame he would feel if he ran away. Additionally, fear and shame affected the relationships that the men had with one another. None of them wanted to look bad in front of each other so they engaged
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