Symbolism In The Things They Carried

Utkarsh Jain

War is one of humanity’s oldest vices. The keystone elements in human history are how soldiers respond to armed conflict and the stress of the war. The harsh conditions of war puts serious pressure on soldiers. Fighting a war is not a typical job that most of us go through. The soldiers are putting a very high risk to their own life and that is the biggest factor causing stress. They are not aware if the next bullet has their name of it. The knowledge and guilt of killing someone is not the same as watching a war movie with gory details on TV. It takes a lot of mental strength do it every day as part of your job and still move on. The expectations of the nation and family are high. They carry the expectations of many on their shoulders and do not want to face defeat at any cost. The loneliness and isolation from staying alone for months together away from family at war. The harsh living conditions for soldiers at war has deep impact on
Multiple accounts of the various coping mechanisms used by the members of the Alpha Company in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried supports the research on the various successful and destructive ways that soldiers use to cope during a war, and ultimately how the book was a mechanism for O’Brien to save himself.
It amplifies the stress they are already under as they are required to continue doing what caused stress in the first place. The first thing is they need to keep their focus on the task at hand. This was seen in the case of Lt. Jimmy Cross. He used to dream about Martha at night and read her letters during stress (sounds weird). It was his way of moving on with the war. He needed to keep the stress away and Martha helped achieve this. Women in the book are portrayed as a constant reminder of home and safety. This is also a reason that Henry Dobbins always kept his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his