TTTC Literary Analysis Essay
The Vietnam War was a conflict between the communist regime of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States from 1959 to 1975. Tim O’Brien, an American writer and a soldier at Vietnam, wrote the novel The Things They Carried. He writes about all of his experiences and stories in the battlefield. Moreover, this book how courage, cowardice, love, and hate can exist side by side within the soldiers and these are the things that keep the soldiers go on in the war.
First, in the first chapter, O’Brien talks about the items that the soldiers carried. "Almost everyone humped photographs. In his wallet, Lieutenant Cross carried…show more content… The author focuses in on the thoughts and emotions of the characters Jimmy Cross. He changes his point of view after Lavender's death and now he has different feelings and emotions for Martha. “She signed the letters Love, but it wasn't love, and all the fine lines and technicalities did not matter. Virginity was no longer an issue. He hated her. Yes, he did. He hated her. Love, too, but it was a hard, hating kind of love.” Jimmy feels ashamed and guilty on Lavender’s death and this incident has changed his emotions and feelings about Martha. Jimmy wants to become better soldiers and he believes that by burning Martha photographs would allow him to forget about her. He will be able to stay focus on the war and he will be able to prevent this kind of incident happen again. On the other hand, in the Chapter Ghost Soldiers, O’Brien mentions about his emotion after he got shot for the second time. He blamed the new medic, Bobby Jorgenson, for not treating him properly for shock after he was shot. “For all my education, all my fine liberal values, I now felt a deep coldness inside me, something dark and beyond reason. It’s a hard thing to admit, even to myself, but I was capable of evil. I wanted to hurt Bobby Jorgenson the way he’d hurt me.” (191) The hate is also comes from the embarrassment for not dying in the war. His emotion and feeling changes him to hate the man who is responsible. O’Brien is shameful and embarrassed on his injury that he got. He can't stand up and fight with his men as he need to needs to stay on his stomach treated by the nurses for weeks. O'Brien knows that he can't hate Jorgensen because he understands what Jorgensen was going through when he failed to help
