*The Things They Carried Week 5.

In The novel, Field Trip, O'Brien takes his daughter, Kathleen, to the field where Kiowa died. By O’Brien going back to the field where Kiowa died, O’Brien is attempting to come at peace with himself, and try relieving, and then hopefully ending the tragic memory of Kiowa. O’Brien looked for “signs of forgiveness” and “personal grace” to help himself overcome the horrific death of Kiowa. However, when O’Brien arrives at the field, the appearance has completely morphed into a “bone dry” field. The place was “at peace” with “butterflies” fluttering around the field. By reconnecting with his old feelings, O’Brien can finally be at peace with himself and with Kiowa. Also, by taking Kiowa’s “moccasins” and “dropping [them] into the water”, O’Brien rids himself of the final piece connecting himself to Kiowa. By going back and revisiting the site Kiowa where died, and getting rid Kiowa’s moccasins, O’Brien is done reliving the appalling memories of Kiowa.

The “yellow butterflies” fluttering about the field when O’Brien returns, symbolizes the metamorphous of O’Brien finally ridding himself of the guilt of Kiowa. The field O’Brien goes to see with his daughter, Kathleen, is completely different from what he remembers the field being. The field used to be “wet” and “smell awful.” Even though the smell is still there, the field is now “dried up” except for a few “marshy areas.” The transition from war back into reality is hard for the soldiers, because events in the real world have changed so vastly. However, transitioning from the real world back into the world of reliving the memories from war is also difficult. The complex transition is shown when O’Brien returns to the field, and also later on in the story when O’Brien tells a story of when he gets “shot in the ass” and has to go away for awhile to heal, then returns back to the war and the guys agree that O’Brien “doesn’t belong with them anymore.”

When O’Brien goes back to the field to show Kathleen where Kiowa died, O’Brien “wades” into the water. When O’Brien gets out, he’s full of “gunk” and Kathleen says he “looks like...” The “gunk” on O’Brien’s face is mud, which would have made O’Brien’s skin appears darker, symbolizing how he’s becoming at peace with and relieving the guilt of Kiowa, who was an Indian.

Earlier in the chapter, the strong bond was shown in the men when the soldiers go back and retrieve Kiowa’s body from the marshy, odorous field. O’Brien speaks of the bond again later on when Rat Kiley goes back “every so often” to “check out [O’Brien]” and make sure the he was doing okay. It wasn’t an easy task, with “guys running and laying down fire”- there was “lots of risk” to the job, but “Kiley took the risk.” By doing all of these risky deeds, the point is made clear at how the only people that the soldiers have is each other- the men becoming each other’s family.

All of the men that forced into the war were all very young. In the beginning, the youth of the men in war is shown by O’Brien himself when he ran away because he was too young and didn’t have a chance to accomplish his dreams. In the chapter The Ghost Soldiers, O’Brien tell the story of how he was shot in the butt and Bobby Jorgenson was supposed to help him after O’Brien was shot. O’Brien went into “shock” and Bobby didn’t know that. All O’Brien wanted to do was “tell [Jorgenson] that [he] was in shock” however, O’Brien “couldn’t get the words out of [his mouth].” By Bobby being frozen with fear and confusion as to what to do, O’Brien again completes the task of showing how naïve and callow these men are.
Along with learning how to cope after the war and showing how inexperienced the boys are, O’Brien also shows the reader how much the war can change a person just by what happens. When O’Brien is shot and Bobby doesn’t know how to help O’Brien, he becomes furious and revengeful. He begins contemplating plans to get back at Bobby. O’Brien turns from a “quiet, thoughtful sort of person” to feeling “cruel at times” and “mean inside.” The malicious emotions O’Brien feels comes from all of the time he’s spent at war and all of the events O’Brien’s seen.
After O’Brien feels betrayed by Bobby Jorgenson for not being able to “save [his] butt”, O’Brien takes revenge upon Bobby. During the night, O’Brien starts making noise to frighten Bobby. Putting “eight ammo cans filled with rifle cartridges” was O’Brien’s use of scaring Bobby. As O’Brien started moving the strings, Bobby appeared as a “silly wooden soldier” and O’Brien the “puppeteer.” The comparison of Bobby to a marionette doll and the use of strings to control Bobby’s fear shows how O’Brien is in complete control of Bobby- just like a person would be to a doll on strings.

O’Brien’s stories explain the psychological effects that war have on people. In the chapter, Night Life, Rat Kiley shoots himself because he “starts seeing bugs” and started talking “weird” about “giant killer bugs” “…mutant bugs with fucked-up DNA.” Kiley eventually goes “mad” and shoots himself. Kiley also starts “scratching” himself until he gets “big sores.” This reminded me of what meth does to a person, which could also be Kiley’s problem because Kiley would smoke dope during the war. Kiley would also have an odd effect where he would “look at alive guys, and would start to “picture how they were dead.” Kiley would start to “imagine what the body parts” of people looked like, and the most peculiar part was that “it didn’t scare [him]”- the images didn’t even give Kiley “the willies.” By not being traumatized by the pictures that Kiley imagines, the reader is shown how drastically all of the blood and guts and viewing soldier’s wounds affected Kiley.

During the book, many times O’Brien would say how some of the stories weren’t true- that he made them up. So I started wondering what the point of reading this book was if I got interested in the stories that O’Brien told, only to find out that they were all a lie and made up. And some of them, O’Brien never said if they were true or made up- so then the reader never knows if the events actually happened, or if they were all fiction. However, towards the end of the story, I realized that O’Brien wasn’t reciting the stories to make them up and upset the reader at the fact that they weren’t true- O’Brien was forcing a certain feeling on the reader, and making the emotions surface in the reader that they would feel while reading the book. Some stories can take the reader back to an instance where they once felt that emotion, and reading the story causes those feelings to resurface, and make one feel those feelings all over again. O’ Brien was also trying to save himself in his writing. By writing the stories from Vietnam, O’Brien was able to let out all of his emotions that he felt, but had no one to tell the stories to; no one that would really understand O’Brien. So in all truth, it really doesn’t matter if the events that O’Brien shared with the reader are true or not- as long as the reader acquired a certain feeling or emotion from the text they were reading. That’s what O’ Brien was portraying within The Things They Carried.

*The Things They Carried:Week 4.

In Speaking of Courage, the reader delves into the life of Norman Bowker after the war. When the chapter first opens, Norman is driving around the lake and sees houses that are all “split level” and “modern” with “big porches and picture windows.” The houses were “handsome” and “well kept” Norman noticed as he drove around the lake. The affluence of the homes is contrasting to Norman’s personality and the vision of where Norman just came back from-war. War isn’t a place of luxury or “expensive” homes. The contrast between the two shows how much different the real world that Norman lived in differs from war.

The fact that the reader is introduced to the story of Norman on the Fourth of July is ironic for the fact that the fourth of July is a holiday celebrated for freedom, and Norman went to war so the world could continue being free. Norman begins explaining the story of the death of Kiowa many times, and in one instance he speaks of “red and green and silver flares” coming down from the sky, and the “rain came down in Technicolor.” The vision of this made me think of fireworks, since the day Norman’s in right now is July fourth. The fact that the fireworks are going off on this specific day, forces Norman to relive the experience of the “shooting flares” and how the “rain came down in Technicolor” creating an image of a firework. As Norman is sitting at the lake, he notices how the “lake creates a mirror” of the fireworks “the reds and blues and greens.” However, the lake is not only creating a mirrored image of the fireworks, but a reflection in Norman’s mind of the image of war, and the “shooting flares” and ultimately the “sinking of Kiowa” in the mud.

Most people celebrate the fourth of July with family and friends, however, Norman has no one to celebrate with which is why he “drives around the lake” multiple times. Norman has a lavish need to tell someone of his experience with Kiowa, but has no one to tell the event to. Sally Kramer, whom Norman “carried pictures around of in his wallet” during war was now “married as Sally Gustafson.” The “lake had drowned” Norman’s best friend, Max Arnold, so Norman didn’t have Max to talk to either. The loneliness that Norman feels adds to the weight of the guilt that Norman faces for the death of Kiowa. All Norman wants is to tell someone of the story. As Norman drives around the lake, he pretends to tell the story to his father, Sally, and Max. However, all Norman is doing is repeating the story over and over again to himself. At one point, Norman gets so desperate as to wanting someone to talk to, that as he goes through the drive-through he begins talking to the intercom. As Norman finishes his meal, he goes back to the intercom and asks the voice at the other end “how would you like to hear about—“ and then stops. The voice in the intercom replies by saying that the voice “isn’t going anywhere” but Norman replies with “nothing” and drives away. Getting so desperate as to almost telling Norman’s feeling to a drive-through intercom shows just how drastically Norman needs someone to talk to.

When Norman first goes through the drive-through, a young girl comes up and Norman attempts to order his meal from her. The girl simply “laughs” and points to “an intercom attached to a steel post.” Then as Norman is ordering his food, the voice asks if he wants a “rootie-tootie” and not knowing what a rootie-tootie is, Norman is baffled. The bewilderment that Norman experiences shows the reader just how much events change after war, and how much the soldiers have to adapt to when they return back home. Loneliness is a patent feeling of Norman both after the war, and during the war after Kiowa died…the only emotion Norman felt was loneliness. Norman was completely “alone.”


Within the entire chapter, Norman repeats over and over again the death of his friend Kiowa, and how Norman is responsible for the death of Kiowa. Norman received “seven medals” from the war, but all Norman can concentrate on is how he failed to receive the “Silver Star.” Almost every page of the chapter, the reader is brought back to the image of “Kiowa slipping underneath the mud,” and how Norman wasn’t able to prevent Kiowa’s death. The repetition of the event shows the guilt that Norman feels over and over again. The reoccurring thought of Kiowa’s death and the image of Kiowa’s “gold wristwatch” and “part of a boot,” and then later on how Norman “grabbed hold of the boot” but not being able to handle the stench, let go of Kiowa’s boot, and let Kiowa slide into the “shit field.”

On the night that Kiowa died, there was a “heavy rain.” The raining on the night of Kiowa’s death symbolizes the sadness, and the tragedy of the death. Rain usually symbolizes purification, but ironically in the story, the rain causes the waste in the field to become mucky and sticky, which then causes the death of Kiowa. The purification of the rain is taken away by the human waste field.

The effects of loneliness that Norman encounters is shown in the next chapter, Notes, as the chapter opens up describing how Norman “hung himself in a locker room” because the isolation Norman experienced was too much to deal with. O’Brien doesn’t put the fact of Norman’s suicide in there just for the story of Norman Bowker, but also to make the reader aware of the emotional stress that soldiers go through not only during war, but after the war is over with.
O’Brien received a letter from Norman explaining how after the war, Norman couldn’t find a “meaningful use for his life.” Norman tried out several jobs such as working at “A&W, an automotive salesmen, janitor, and car wash attendant” but none of these jobs made him feel “useful.” Norman couldn’t find a job where anything was “real” or “tangible”- not like “the stakes of a war.”

The difference between the personalities of Norman Bowker and Tim O’Brien is that O’Brien’s transformation after the war was much easier than Norman’s. O’Brien didn’t experience any “flashbacks” or “midnight sweats.” O’Brien states that he “never talked about the war conversationally” however, O’Brien did in fact talk about the war every day. Not verbally, but the ink on pages is the way O’Brien dealt with the war. Writing down his thoughts and experiences was a reliever for O’Brien after the war--the pages in the book was the substantial person that O’Brien needed to talk to. Norman had no one to tell his experience to, therefore Norman was isolated and trapped in his own mind with the thoughts and memories of the war. O’Brien saved himself from the “swirl of memories” that might have “ended in paralysis or worse.” By writing, O’Brien was able to “objectify [his] own experiences” and sort out all the details and emotions he felt. Unlike Norman, whose loneliness and isolation led to suicide.
Norman asked O’Brien to write a story about Kiowa and the tragedy that Norman experienced. O’Brien used the “lake as the nucleus around which the story would orbit.” The lake was the main focus of Norman, and in the previous chapter, the lake was the main point in the story- for the lake was what Norman revolved around the entire day. The lake is used as a symbol of the shit field. The field is where Kiowa died, and the main focus and reason that Kiowa died was in fact the field of mud, which ironically was poop. The irony in the “shit field” is symbolized that the war is unpleasant and that the war nonetheless “stinks.” However, using a lake in the story of Norman is a more pleasant way to show the story of Norman, rather than the field of waste showing the unpleasant and tragic death of Kiowa.

Within the next chapter, In the Field, the story of Kiowa’s death is brought up again, but in the point of view from many different soldiers, not just the aspect of Norman. Lieutenant Cross is searching for Kiowa’s body, and as Cross tries to identify one soldier from another, he finds it difficult because the “filth erases the identity, transforming the men into identical copies of a single soldier” which is how Cross is supposed to treat each solider. However, Cross chooses rather to view the men as “human beings” not “units.” Not only does this show a bond between the soldiers, but also the fact that the men stayed out in the “shit field” to find Kiowa’s body. The guys could have said that it would be too much work, or it wasn’t worth their time. Instead, each of them felt that they owed it to Kiowa to search for his body. By doing so, the bond of the soldiers is shown to the reader and how strong of relationships the men build at war.
Guilt is one of the themes within the story, and becomes more evident after the death of Kiowa. Not only does Norman blame himself for not being able to save Kiowa from slipping under the waste, but Lieutenant Cross, Azar, and one of the younger soldiers also feel guilty. Cross feels guilty because he set up camp on the “shit field” and after Kiowa’s death, Cross knew he should have “went with [his] instinct” and set up camp on “higher ground.” Azar feels guilty because of all the immature jokes that Azar says. Azar feels if he would have “kept his mouth shut” then “none of that would have happened.” The youngest soldier feels guilty because he was showing Kiowa a picture of his girlfriend, and it was “too dark” and the two of them couldn’t see her. So the young soldier took out his flashlight even though he “knew he shouldn’t have shined the light.” Right after the flash of the light shone, the flares shot at them, and Kiowa was soon sinking under the waste. Norman simply replies to the guilt by saying that it wasn’t “nobody’s fault” it was “everybody’s.” Norman means that everybody can have an excuse for why the death of Kiowa is their own fault, so in reality, it wasn’t one person’s fault. However everyone still continues to replay in their head the experience of what has happened, and how each of them had something to do with the death of Kiowa.

In the beginning of the story until now, Azar has been known as an immature character cracking lame jokes on every subject. The men become most fed up with Azar after he begins telling jokes after Kiowa dies and how Kiowa is now “eating shit” and “wasted in a waste field.” However, once the men discover Kiowa’s body, Azar feels a sense of guilt. O’Brien describes in the first few chapters how the men coming to war are not in fact “men” but “boys.” Azar isn’t the mature man that some of the others are when they first arrive to war, but as the war goes on, Azar realizes his immaturity. The war has had more a positive effect on Azar—the war forced Azar to grow up.

*The Things They Carried:Week 3.

Within the chapter Church, Kiowa and Henry Dobbins discuss each other’s involvement and moral belief in the matter of religion and church. Dobbin’s explains how he “wouldn’t be good at the brainy part” for the fact that Dobbin’s never seemed too interested in attending church and really doesn’t know too much about church. However, Dobbin’s enjoys “the people part” and “[visiting] sick people.” The sense of solicitude that Dobbin’s has for others is later foreshadowed in the chapter Style, when Dobbin’s sticks up for the young girl that’s dancing after Azar makes light of her. Dobbin’s doesn’t know about the facts of church, however, Kiowa carries a bible around with him at war. Kiowa just “grew up that way” but never once thought about becoming a minister. Kiowa likes the way that “church makes [him] feel inside,” the silence that he hears, yet “there’s still this sound [he] can’t hear” like the way Kiowa “feels in the forest.” the quietness Kiowa feels in church is compared to the quietness Kiowa feels within the forest during the war. However, Kiowa explains how “there’s still this sound you can’t hear” which is the imagination and the mind wandering when Kiowa is put in the quiet environments- all that exists is simply Kiowa’s own imagination and the thoughts that he’s feeling.

In The Man I Killed, the chapter opens up with a gruesome and gory description of a man. The imagery O’Brien depicts is achieved by the description throughout the chapter. The dead man is described as “his jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and other teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole….” This description continues on with emphasis put not only on the gruesome effect, but also how “his fingernails were clean, his right cheek was smooth and hairless” and how there was “a butterfly on his chin.” Butterflies symbolize the metamorphous from a caterpillar into a butterfly. This symbolism could tie into the story by meaning that the young man’s life isn’t over yet. In some religions, the belief is that after you die, you’ll be reborn- which is what the butterfly could symbolize within the story. The butterfly could also symbolize the beauty of death. Butterflies are associated with beauty, which is how O’Brien depicts deaths within the story. When Curt Lemon died, O’Brien concentrated on how “the sunlight [shone] on his face” and in this instance, O’Brien depicts the beauty by describing the young man’s “smooth cheek” and the “butterfly on his chin.” O’Brien doesn’t concentrate solely how death means that a person no longer exists, but rather how death can be “beautiful.” The shape of the star on the young boy’s eye is repeated several times throughout the chapter. A star is used to symbolize war, especially in communist countries such as China and Vietnam. The occurrence of the star shape on the young man’s eye symbolizes that the Vietnam War is the reason for his death.

O’Brien personally doesn’t know the young man that he killed, however, he portrays a story about the young man adding details about how going to the war “frightened him” because he was “not a fighter.” The young boy “could not picture doing brave things his father had done, or his uncles, or the heroes of stories” he hoped that “the American’s would go away” and that he wouldn’t have to be a part of the war. The repetition of the word “hope” is used many times towards the end of the description of the young boy. The “hope” that the war would be over, and that the young boy wouldn’t have to be a part of the war. Sound familiar? O’Brien makes up this story of the young man, but puts characteristics and feelings of his own self within. O’Brien was one that didn’t want to go to war- didn’t want to be a part of the war. The guilt that O’Brien feels for the death of the young boy is played out through the description of the young boy’s fictitious personality.

In the following chapter, Ambush, the reader gets a better feel for the emotions that O’Brien was feeling. The taste of “whatever was rising from [his] stomach tasted like lemonade” and made his mouth taste “fruity and sour,” the reader can taste the nervousness that O’Brien was feeling. All O’Brien remembers was “[throwing] the grenade before telling [himself] to throw it” and “holding his breath” waiting for what would happen next. Feeling the guilt and realization, that “the man [was] about to die” O’Brien wants to “warn him” but then the grenade makes a “popping noise” and with a small “white puff” the man dies. Why would O’Brien throw the grenade at the young man for no reason? Fear. Fear for what will happen next, fear for what the young man would do to him, and possibly even fear for what O’Brien sees in the young man, which is himself- a young boy not ready to be thrown into the world of war.

Within the story, O’Brien discusses an item that men carry as a comfort device. In the chapter Style, the men see a “fourteen year old girl, with her eyes half closed, her feet bare” dancing by her home. Inside the house, the men found her family dead and badly burned. The girl didn’t have a “big family” just “an infant, an old woman, and a woman whose age was hard to tell.” The girl danced for comfort. She already had a very small family, and now the young girl had no one. Dancing was comfort for the young girl, just like the pebble was comfort for Jimmy Cross, the pantyhose were a comfort for Henry Dobbins, and bringing Martha over to war was a comfort for Mark Fossie. Through all the trauma the young girl has went through, her comfort is found in dancing.

*The Things They Carried:Week 2.

Having relatives and friends in war, we’ve all heard some sort of story about what happens at war. However, are all of the stories that we hear true? Or are emotions imbedded within that distort the true meaning of what actually happened? In the chapter, How To Tell A True War Story, O’Brien states that a war story “never instructs, nor encourages virtue, nor suggests models of proper human behavior, nor restrains men from doing the things men have always done” instead, O’Brien clarifies that war stories are justified true if the listener feels certain emotions, and can “feel it in your stomach if the story is true.”

Within the chapter, O’Brien expresses many war stories, but the reader has to decide whether the stories are true or not. O’Brien explains how many stories get distorted because the speaker tends to add personal feelings within, or their memory is foggy in certain areas, so one must adlib to make the story more believable.

Curt Lemon is one of the stories O’Brien recites. Physically, Curt died a horrible, gruesome death. However, when O’Brien tells the story, he concentrates solely on the beauty of Curt’s death as how it was “almost beautiful.” Speaking of how “the sunlight came around him, and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms,” rather than the gore, and the gruesomeness. Rather than mentioning the distressing emotions the men feel, O’Brien instead describes how Dave Jensen sang “Lemon Tree as we threw down the parts” of Curt in the tree. I found it quite amazing how through all the ghastly and dreadful sights O’Brien saw, the most important aspect for him was to get across how the sunlight looked on Curt’s face before he died. O’Brien would speak of other occurrences within the chapter, yet always go back to try to explain more in depth the vision of Curt when he died; almost as if Curt’s death wasn’t an awful experience, but rather something that was meant to happen.

Another story spoken of is how Mark Fossie invites Mary Ann Bell, his girlfriend, to come spend time at war with himself. Mary first arrives as “a cute blonde, just a kid barely out of high school” but all of that soon changes as Mary gets a taste of war. Desiring to adapt to the culture Mary is newly thrown into, she begins learning “phrases of Vietnamese” and “how to cook rice over a can of Sterno and eat with her hands”; Mary was basically turning into one of ‘the guys.’ Mary became very curious about the land, and all that occurred in the war. That surprised me a bit that Mary would be so curious about the war, and want to be a part of what was going on. Inferring how Mark Fossie describes her at the beginning, the reader would most likely assume that Mary is just a high school girl, afraid to ‘get her hands dirty.’ The most shocking part to the story is the fact that after Mark sends Mary back home, she comes back to the war three weeks later, yet doesn’t bother telling Mark of her arrival. When Mark discovers Mary in a tent with greenies, the smell of “joss sticks, incense” and “…a mix of blood and scorched hair” soon flood Mark’s nose. Mark spots around Mary’s neck a necklace of human tongues “like pieces of blackened leather.” Mary has evolved from a character of being “young” “blonde” and “beautiful” to a character that has completely transformed because of what has gone on at Vietnam. By telling this story, O’Brien gets the point across to the reader just how much war changes someone from their naïve self, to killing others and hanging tongues around their neck; the gruesome effects that war has on everyone that is a part of war and how drastically the effects can change people.

Not only does war force a major change on the personality of people, but war also takes an emotional toll on soldiers. In Stockings, O’Brien speaks of Henry Dobbins, “a good man, and a superb soldier” yet Henry feels the emotional strain of being away from his girlfriend. Around Henry’s neck is the pantyhose of his girlfriend. Wearing pantyhose around Henry’s neck was a sort of “talisman” for him. The pantyhose had the ability to “keep him safe” and leave Henry pleasant thoughts where “things were soft and intimate” feelings which are essential to staying sane in war. After Henry’s girlfriend dumped him, the wearing of her pantyhose continued, for “the magic doesn’t go away” and the feeling Henry associates with them are still comforting.

*The Things They Carried Week 1.

The many themes in The Things They Carried start to unfold within the first two chapters. Tim O’Brien begins the first chapter, The Things They Carried, by naming physical items throughout the chapter of what the soldiers carried. However, no matter how heavy the load of the physical items, the weight could never outshine the emotional heaviness that each of the soldiers had. Along with the necessities O’Brien lists, each soldier is also defined with a certain item. Henry Dobbins carried his “girlfriend’s pantyhose wrapped around his neck” symbolized as a sign of comfort, and love for Henry’s girlfriend. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried a pebble within his mouth, from Martha. Jimmy fantasizes and longs for Martha to love him, yet knows that love is far from what Martha feels for Jimmy. Martha writes Jimmy notes throughout his time in the war, and once wrote of the pebble. Within the letter, Martha explains how the pebble was acquired where the land and the sea “came together, but separated” much like the relationship between Martha and Jimmy. Through the letters, Martha and Jimmy are together. In Jimmy’s mind, Martha and himself are together. And in Jimmy’s heart, the two are together. However, Jimmy being at war and Martha being miles away from him, the two are apart. The two are also apart in the fact that Martha doesn’t love Jimmy like he desires.

Death is an evident occurrence in wars, and death is bound to happen. After Ted Lavender’s death, Jimmy Cross puts the blame entirely upon himself. Martha being engulfed in Jimmy’s brain, all of his focus was put upon her instead of the protection of the men. After Ted Lavender was shot in the head, Jimmy blames himself for not being focused on the wellbeing of his fellow soldiers. Jimmy knows erasing Martha from his mind is all he can do. Jimmy began burning Martha’s letters and photographs the morning after Ted Lavender’s death. Tim O’Brien writes of “a steady rain falling” on the morning that Martha’s items were being burned. Symbolization of the rain is that Jimmy is freeing himself of the heavy burden he’s carrying; purifying himself of Martha and the sin of being responsible for Ted Lavender’s death.

In the chapter Love, the reader uncovers that Tim O’Brien is not only the author of the story, but is also the main character within the story. O’Brien is writing of his occurrences in the war, and writes of his friends, feelings, and experiences. Love opens up where Lieutenant Cross is conversing with O’Brien. The subject of Martha comes up, and Cross explains how he saw her at a reunion, and discovered that she “never got married, and probably never would” which obfuscated Cross. Cross recites of how he shared with Martha his feelings for her from over the years, yet Martha shows no sign of interest or love in return. In the end of the chapter, O’Brien asks Cross’s permission as to if it’s okay if O’Brien writes a story of some of the occurrences they’ve experienced. Cross agrees as long as O’Brien doesn’t “mention anything about…” and the reader is left hovering about that thought. So did Tim O’Brien ever put in the story what Cross told him not to? Or did O’Brien write about it anyways, and go against his promise to Cross? Later on in the story the reader may find out, or maybe that’s a “thing the [reader] will carry.”

Along with the symbolism and themes, O’Brien paints brilliant imagery within the story. As O’Brien speaks of the feelings he encounters as to whether he should run away or go to war, O’Brien “wants you to actually feel it” which is exactly what he accomplishes. The “terrible squeezing pressure in his chest” and being only “twenty one years old” facing the pressure of giving up your dreams to be forced into war. Asking himself and the reader questions of “would you feel pity for yourself? Would you think about your family and childhood and your dreams and all you’re leaving behind? Would you cry?” What would you do if you were being forced to go into war? The trepidation and reluctance that O’Brien felt is put into words explicitly as to the emotions that O’Brien endured.

heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy