Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Choosing to Continue One cannot be enrolled in a literature class titled “Faith and Doubt” without discussing free will. When reading about the great joys and great sorrows that life brings, we are forced to reckon with the power of our own choices. We wonder if humans are truly free, and how much power our choices have. One theme that has stuck with me the most this past semester, is the choice to persevere. In the face of violence, hatred, and hardship, the characters we read about continue on, time and time again. Specifically, we explored themes of helplessness versus choice in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Ernest J. Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying, and Albert Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus.” In each of these pieces, the characters …show more content…
The books I have read this past semester have proven the pervasiveness of loss, guilt and blame. Whether it occurs in the jungle of the Congo or the battlefields of Vietnam, people die, and someone always has to be at fault. Barabra Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible examines guilt and grief primarily through the grieving mother, Orleanna Price, and her daughter Leah Price, who constantly grapples with the guilt of her own privilege. Similarly, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried guides the reader through the psychological torment that guilt can bring. Both of these novels ultimately convey that forgiveness, specifically of oneself, is the only way to heal from past wounds. For Leah, she finds forgiveness through her husband, Anatole. Although Leah loves Anatole, she feels immense guilt for being white and for coming to the Congo, despite the fact that she did not choose to be born white nor did she choose to relocate her family to Africa. It is through the love and acceptance that Anatole gives her, however, that she can finally see how it feels to be forgiven. “I drift in a warm bath of forgiveness, and it seems pointless to resist. I have no energy to improve myself. If Anatole can wrap all my rattlebone sins in a blanket and call me goodness itself, why then I’ll just believe him,” she says (Kingsolver 396). Part of Leah’s journey is realizing that her whole life does not have to be shaped by the guilt she feels. When reflecting on her abusive and tyrannical father, she wishes, “If I could reach backward somehow to give Father just one gift, it would be the simple human relief of knowing you've done wrong, and living through it” (525). This demonstrates how she understands the value of accepting the past as it is. By forgiving both herself and her father, she can let go of her guilt and bring herself peace. Leah’s mother, Orleanna, also struggles with immeasurable guilt over the death of her youngest child, Ruth May, in the Congo. Continuously

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