Gender Stereotypes In The Things They Carried

O’Brien characterizes the soldiers as reluctant to kill, dying dreadfully when he says, “Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to.” (#) In plain text, this quote explains that men killed and died because they would feel a sense of shame if they did not. However, by providing embarrassment as an explanation for killing and dying, the reader is challenged to consider each soldier as an individual who chose to kill people and chose to die. Generally, a war itself is considered responsible for the deaths that occur; O’Brien urges the reader to factor out war and look at the situation on a much broader scale. This implication emphasizes that although they were drafted, the boys did not have to go; they could refuse to kill, they could run away, or they could go limp and get choppered away. Embarrassment implies that immensely firm societal boundaries are present. O’Brien also chooses to use the word men, rather than referring to them as soldiers or boys, which specifically draws attention and significance to the fact that killing and dying was something that men felt they had to do. The use of the word men implies that gender stereotypes were at the core of what pressured the soldiers to kill and die against their will. With so much responsibility in their hands, an adult must not be swayed by the opinions and standards of others. It is so important that an adult follows their own moral compass and meets their own needs because that is what makes them independent and separates them from a child.

As the boys in The Things They Carried fixate on meeting society's standards manliness, these standards dominate their own moral compasses, drowning out their own opinions and feelings and following the crowd as dependent children would.