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This is the final interpretive essay....

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7-1 Final Project: Interpretive Essay Introduction to Literature August 15th, 2021

The story I felt the most connected to was “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. I chose this text because it discusses the societal issue of men at war facing embarrassment for expressing their emotions. When the men in the story repress their emotions, they are only adding to the emotional burden that they carry around with them. Almost all of us have experience emotional events that we have struggled to let go of, whether it’s the death of a loved one or a tough breakup. This story emphasizes how emotional traumas can be just as “heavy" as carrying around physical items. Through the use of symbolism, setting, and tone, the author describes how the soldiers felt the need to bury their emotional pain rather than expressing their emotions which added to their overall pain. The author uses symbolism to describe the physical and emotional burden that each soldier carries with him. First, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries around photos and letters from Martha. At the beginning of the story, these photos and letters are a symbol of his love for Martha and his hope of being with her. After Ted Lavender is shot and killed, these letters and photos are a reminder of the guilt he feels surrounding Ted’s death. They are a constant reminder that the woman he loves does not love him back, and he let this distract him. After Ted Lavender dies, Jimmy Cross starts to burn these items to represent he will not continue to fantasize about Martha anymore. “Lavender was dead. You couldn’t burn the blame” (O’Brien, 1081). Although the letters were burned, the guilt he felt stayed with him and he continued to carry around that weight with him. Next, the setting of the story allows us to understand the author’s overall message. The story is set at war in Vietnam. The war aspect adds to the intensity of the events that take place; the men are expected to move on from events almost as soon as they happen. Since they don’t have time to process, their emotional weight continues to build after each traumatic experience.

This setting causes some men to cover up their pain with humor, and others just completely avoid it. Out of all the emotions this setting made them feel, the worst was their fear of embarrassment. “Men were killed and died, because they were embarrassed not to... They died so as to not die of embarrassment” (O’Brien, 1080). The setting heightens the reality of life and death, and some men would rather die than put their pride aside. War causes things to happen quickly, and it leaves men feeling exhausted both physically and mentally. The overall tone in this story changes depending on what is going on in the story. At the beginning, the tone is hopeful. Jimmy Cross daydreams about being with Martha in New Jersey as he reads her letters and looks at her photos. After Ted Lavender dies, the tone completely changes; it becomes more somber and serious. “He would shut down the daydreams... It was another world where there were no pretty poems or midterm exams, a place where men died because of carelessness and gross stupidity” (O’Brien, 1082). Jimmy Cross takes responsibility for Ted Lavender’s death and decides that he will be more responsible and aware of his men. While other men don’t seem as affected by this death, Jimmy Cross sees it as a wakeup call and it reminds him of the seriousness of war. In conclusion, the symbols, setting, and tone represented in the story work to help the reader understand the overall theme which is emotional burdens can be just as heavy as carrying physical objects. While many of us have not experienced the traumas that happen with war, we have experienced other events that are considered traumatic. When reading this story, most people can’t relate to the war aspect of the story, but they can still empathize with the characters and understand how they felt at that moment. In today’s society, many of these issues still stand. Men at war must quickly move on from events and they are taught not to express their emotions. This literature helps us understand the reality of war and the emotional toll it has on a person.

References:

O'Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” Literature: The Human Experience, edited by Richard Abcarian, et al., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 1070-1083...