The Things They Carried Essay

Tim O'Brien is the main character in The Things They Carried, and plays the role of narrator and protagonist. Throughout the story, there are very clear examples of every single theme that you mentioned which makes Tim an ideal character to write about.

Tim graduated from Macalester college in May of 1968 at the age of 21, and received his official draft notice the next June. Tim had been in a top fraternity and had graduated suma cum laude from his college and thought that there must have been a mistake made with him being drafted. Tim made no plans on what he was going to do with his inevitable fate of going to war in Vietnam, and worked in a meatpacking plant for all of the summer.

Tim had been playing with the idea of just leaving his house and going to Canada, but he was always too ashamed of what his parents and neighbors and fellow townsfolk would think of him if he dodged the draft and just left. This fear of being viewed as weak by his peers made it physically impossible for him to dodge the draft, and although he came very close to doing it, ended up giving into his shame and going to Vietnam.

Tim's platoon leader in Vietnam was Lt. Jimmy Cross. Jimmy Cross was a nice guy who helped Tim out and helped him get accustomed to being in Vietnam, but he wasn't a very good leader. When Tim first arrived in Vietnam, it took him a while to get used to how to act with the other soldiers in the platoon, and how they joked around to cope with the loss, and how they had different terms for everything that made it sound less human and therefore easier to forget about. For example, when Tim's platoon was going through a village and saw the old dead man lying on the ground, the whole platoon gave him a high five as they walked by, but Tim couldn't even look at the old man. Kiowa walked by and tried to comfort Tim: "..That's not being a coward, that show's courage.." Tim still very much doubted his courage, and although he never showed signs of cowardice during ambush or during humping, but it seemed like he always doubted himself.

Later on in the book, Tim is shot in the butt and Rat Kiley is gone to Japan, so the new medic Bobby Jorgenson tends to him, but doesn't do a very good job, so Tim get's something very much like gangrene on his butt. While he is in the hospital, Tim's anger about the poor job that Bobby did grows and grows until he is so angry that he wants to get Bobby back, and starts to plan how he can get revenge on Bobby when all the soldiers are at the base where Tim is recovering on R&R.