The Things They Carried Ted Lavender's Death

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The Things they Carried effects of death The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien is a collection of war stories told by platoon of men in vietnam. In the Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien he incorporates the deaths of the men in the platoon like that of Ted Lavender into the novel to show how the platoon’s reaction to his death develops each character’s personality. The death of Ted Lavender affected the whole platoon’s attitude towards the events of his death. After Ted Lavender was shot the narrator states “They were afraid of dying but they were even more afraid to show it. They found jokes to tell. They used a hard vocabulary to contain the terrible softness (O’Brien 19). The quote by the narrator describes how the men try to deal with the death of the Ted Lavender. Because the men were afraid to show their fear of death they make the event have a lightness to them by telling jokes. The hard language they used was to hide the men’s empathy and despair for the death of Ted Lavender. …show more content…
Tim O’Brien says “After the chopper took Lavender away, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross led his men into the village of Than Khe… and the burned everything (O’Brien 15). Jimmy Cross’s later reaction to Ted Lavender's death resulted the destruction of the village of Than Khe. Jimmy Cross's actions show his anger and carelessness that followed after the death of Ted Lavender. As a result of Jimmy Cross’s actions he realises that he has gotten out of hand and needs to reform his composure. O’Brien describes Jimmy Cross’s actions “Instead he went back to his maps. He was now determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence” (O’Brien 24). The quote describes that after the destruction of Than Khe that Jimmy Cross’s decides to become a better leader. He also decides to follow his orders without
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