How Does Guilt Affect Men

The Things They Carried Essay In the book The Things They Carried guilt plays a huge role in how the men react and carry themselves. How does the guilt affect the men and how they carry themselves? In the book, the men in Alpha Company felt guilt for many things. Some felt guilty from killing while others from letting people get killed. In a way everyone feels guilty from something different, but yet they are feeling the same. Some of the men take the guilt in different ways some write while other burn pictures of the ones they loved. It can be said the guilt has changed the way they will carry themselves for the rest of their lives. I guess you could say that all soldiers in these situations would do the same that the men of Alpha did.
Norman Broker was a member of Alpha Company; One night he tried to save Kiowa from getting stucked down under the sludge in a muddy field. Norman pulled but he couldn't help Kiowa from sinking into the sludge. After Kiowa died Norman felt like crap and what made it worse that they now had to search for his body. The book goe into another chapter that tells about Norman Brokers life. The chapter is based on the fact Norman is back home and drives around this lake many times and while he does he thinks about what if he had saved Kiowa and received the silver star. Norman then thinks about how his father would be proud of him and how he would tell the people in town and the girl he once loved but now was married. Norman drives around the lake many times and then goes to the drive in restaurant where he almost tells the order taker his story. I think Norman not only felt guilt about Kiowa but also about now receiving the silver star. If Norman would have received the silver star he thought how his father would talk to him and people in town throw a parade. Later Norman committed suicide, I think from depression of not feeling useful and having no place to