In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” while not physically, the women still play an advocating role in the active imagination of the men throughout the story. Although it was Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’ job to protect his men, he could not help but keep on getting distracted by his unrequited love, Martha. Although Lieutenant Cross knew that his love was unreturned, he could not help but imagine that it was, making him lose focus on reality - "Lieutenant Cross gazed at the tunnel. But he was not there. He was buried with Martha under the white sand at the Jersey shore. They were pressed together, and the pebble in his mouth was her tongue. He was smiling,” (O’Brien, 5) - these kind of distractions resulting in the death of Ted Lavender. This can make the women of the story be seen as escapes or sex objects - “He wanted her to be a virgin and not a virgin, all at once,” (O’Brien, 5). However, the overall views of women in the story are positive. The women were admired, even if they were not physically there with the men. They …show more content…
Boyle’s “The Night of the Satellite”, the women in this story are strong-headed, independent, and would not let anyone walk all over them. When Paul refused to help the woman on the side of the road who seemed to be having a spat with her love, Mallory may have gotten upset but didn’t let Paul’s resistance stop her from helping the girl. The girl, when her arm was snatched by the guy (Boyle, 42), she does not cower in fear or lets him continue his assault; she fights back. From that point on, the readers will notice a certain link between Paul and Mallory’s relationship and the girl and the guy’s relationship - as if what’s happening to the girl and the guy will occur to Paul and Mallory (which could be true, seeing as their relationship is starting to fall apart). However, despite all their fighting, the women in both relationships stand up for themselves when needed, unlike other female characters in many other different
The Things They Carried Women and their Role in The Things They Carried Within the book The Thing’s They Carried, the stories of the male soldiers and their dealings with the Vietnam War. However, he also delves into the stories of the women and how they affected the soldiers and their experiences in Vietnam. While the men dealt with the horrors of war, the women were right at their side, just not in as much of a public view as the male soldiers. O’Brien uses women such as Martha, Linda and Kathleen in The Things They Carried to punctuate how vital remembrance and recompense was to him and other soldiers in Vietnam.
Tim O’Brien, in his novel The Things They Carried, retells the many stories he acquired from his time in military service in Vietnam. In one of his chapters, “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” O’Brien has his character Rat Kiley tell the story of a soldier who managed to smuggle his girlfriend into Vietnam. This girl, Mary Anne, arrives in culottes and a pink sweater, giving a portrayal of a feminine character. Throughout the story, she involves herself in progressively gruesome activities, such as performing emergency medical procedures and going on ambushes with the Green Berets; and by the end, she is wearing a necklace of human tongues. This demonstrates that Mary Anne is consumed by Vietnam, and ultimately disappears to become “one with the land.” O’Brien uses this story to convey that the soldiers in the Vietnam War were forever changed by the horrifying experiences that they experienced.
One of the main characters in the short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, although she shows no signs of loving him. This obsession is a fantasy that he uses to escape from reality, as well as, take his mind off of the war that surrounds him, in Vietnam. The rest of the men in his squad have items that they carry too, as a way of connecting to their homes. The story depicts the soldiers by the baggage that they carry, both mentally and physically. After the death of one of his troops, Ted Lavender, Jimmy finally realizes that his actions have been detrimental to the squad as a whole. He believes that if he would have been a better leader, that Ted Lavender would have never been shot and killed. The physical and emotional baggage that Jimmy totes around with him, in Vietnam, is holding him back from fulfilling his responsibilities as the First Lieutenant of his platoon. Jimmy has apparent character traits that hold him back from being the leader that he needs to be, such as inexperience and his lack of focus; but develops the most important character trait in the end, responsibility.
In this book there are three major women Linda, Martha, and Mary Anne. Linda's role is positive yet very saddening because she in a way has given Tim O'Brien the power to tell stories so in depth using memories. Mary Anne's role is encouraging because she comes to Vietnam and throughout the journey she discovers herself; she redefines the typical role of women. Martha's role in this book could be considered positive because she is keeping up Jimmy Cross's morale but, at the same time it could be negative because she leads him on. So the role of women in the book is very influential in a positive way.
The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, is an assortment of war stories set before, during, and after the Vietnam War. The stories are not written in chronological order, but rather a scattered remembering of events that occurred during O’Brien’s time during the war. When recalling certain memories, they tend to lead to other memories that develop into a story of their own. O’Brien will describe to the reader a death that occurs in the squadron and later will give more detail about that particular character. Ted Lavender’s character is an example of how O’Brien will tell his story. In the first story, the reader is informed of a death in the patrol, Ted Lavender, and later O’Brien describes him as a laid back person who took tranquilizers
The death of Ted Lavender in “The Things They Carried” leads to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’ moral blunder which is brought about by his guilt over the horror of the incident:
In Tim O' Brian's, The Things They Carried, he talks about the Vietnam War and it's effects country. O' Brian uses the psychological approach to tell the sorrows of war . The things that they carried had all represented a part of each soldier. In the days of the Vietnam war, they did not expect a woman to fight in a war. The story is better understood because the reader knows the background of the story and the characters personality. The thought was just unacceptable and definitely not normal. The two methods of interpreting a story fused together brings about a great understanding of the characters and the event which is about to take place. The deceitful interpretations presented, the things they carried, and a transformation of a dainty girl that turns into a survivor are examples of each method presented.
The "things" each man carries are literal and figurative. The physical load each man carries oversees the emotional load. Henry Dobbins carries items belonging to his girlfriend which symbolizes his desire for comfort and affection. Jimmy Cross also carries the emotional burden of desire seen from the letters from Martha, a college love, who it seems will never give the love and affection Cross desires. O'Brien touches on the burdens carried after the war in "Love" and "Notes." Survivors of the war may hold the gift of seeing the sun shine every day but are also reminded everyday of the grief and conf...
The Feminist Approach Method to critical analysis examines the feminism implied within the text. In Tim O'Brien's, The Things They Carried, the story, "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong," is a story about the changes in a female when she is exposed to war. But, more importantly it is a story that illustrates how women are more than sex objects. "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong," proves that female and male stereotypes do not always apply.
In “The Things They Carried”, Martha plays a critical function to the story, Although she doesn 't seem too crucial to the story nor to Jimmy Cross. However, in fact, she represents escapism for Jimmy Cross, she helps him avoid the sorrow experiences he indulges in the Vietnam war; She helps him escape Vietnam mentally. In contrast, I think Tim O’Brien included Martha in the story to emphasize that war is extremely strenuous on the soldiers and that they need a tool to help them escape, in this case Martha is a valuable tool for Lieutenant Jimmy
Of all the literary lenses, one would not think that feminism would be a prevalent topic in a war novel. In Tim O’Brien’s iconic book, The Things They Carried, the idea that women were just as important as men acts an important theme, however from a different perspective. Movies and epic war stories tell of the heroic actions of the World’s finest: bulky men with an appetite for battle. Yet, there always lied a backbone. Comfort, inspiration, ease, all things that women provided to soldiers during any war. Yet, sometimes things did not go as planned and rash actions were made. O’Brien’s masterful use of lenses creates an interesting novel, one that will stand the test of time, however, the aspects of the feminist lens provides much insight into the inner lying meanings of the book, mostly in the areas of characters, objects of importance, and the role of gender in the Vietnam War.
Many of the short stories within the collection The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, can be compared and contrasted in regards to elements including theme, characters, and technique. In “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” the character Mary Anne Bell appears to be apparently similar to the character Martha from “The Things They Carried,” in that both are young women who have relations with a soldier in the war. Though upon further analysis of Mary Anne, it appears she is far from alike to Martha. Rather, an unexpected parallel can be drawn between the characters Mary Anne and Elroy Berdahl, from “On the Rainy River,” in that both appear to be epitomes of masculinity. The peculiar connection between these characters developed by Tim O’Brien shines a light on the ambiguity of conventional gender roles of men and women.
In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien repeatedly uses the word “carried” to symbolize the emotions and personalities of soldiers in the story, both individually and collectively. Jimmy Cross underwent terrible trauma as a result of “carrying” his memories and false hopes for his love, Martha. When he was finally able to let go of those memories, he understood reality and his focus returned to where should of always been: leading the squadron. As a group, the soldiers underwent trauma due to the emotions they carried including fear, grief, and love. The word “carry” comes from the Latin words “quadrare” and “caries,” meaning “suitable” and “to rot,” respectively. The things carried by the soldiers “suited” their character, but also “rotted” within them, causing them trauma until they were able to let go of them.
How this essay will be approached is by first giving a general interpretation of the poem "What Every Woman Should Carry" by Maura Dooley. This will be followed by, with the use of stylistic features, a more thorough interpretation. The stylistic features that will be used are deviation, parallelism as well as cohesion and foregrounding. This will be done by taking a closer look at the only stanza contained in the entire poem which consists of 12 lines. This particular poem could be broken into two parts. Lines one to six appears to deal with the past and six to twelve might specify the present; this will be explained in more depth during the course of the essay.
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and Eveline by James Joyce are the two short stories that will be analyzed using feminist criticism in this essay. Both short stories share a lot in common about what the role of women’s was perceived within the time they were written.