Guilt is an inevitable emotion that we have to channel. Guilt helps to maintain ties to the people around you. In the novel, “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, every soldier felt guilt when a unit member got killed or something tragic happened. This guilt felt by the soldiers was exemplified by Tim O’Brien and Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Their feelings of guilt inflicted more of a burden than the things they were carrying did. O’Brien’s guilt was administered as a result of survival, while Cross’s guilt was set as a result of avoidable mistakes.
O’Brien’s feeling of guilt over the Viet Cong soldier he killed derives from