Analysis of Soldiers' Expectations in The Things They Carried

Book analysis

In “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, the audience can see the lives of many soldiers in their time in Vietnam before, during and after their time. Many soldiers in the story have to deal with the effects of having other people's pressure on their psyche without knowing how to deal with it. While some expectations may drive soldiers to engage in war heroics, expectations may lead soldiers to do things that ultimately utilizes them and leaves them feeling shocked. When faced with the thought of failing to meet the expectations set for them, soldiers tend to obsess with the idea of failing to reach them.

The author, Tim O'Brien, was struggling with this enormously. O'Brien found himself thinking the night before going to war about how others would react if he ran away from the war. Tim imagined how others would take it, how neighbors would talk and 'The conversation slowly zeroed in on the young O'Brien kid, how the damned sissy had taken off for Canada. At night, when he couldn’t sleep, he’d sometimes carry on fierce arguments with these people.” Although no one was fighting with him, Tim is unable to walk away from his peers ' thought of judgment, the pressure of not doing what people expect of him clearly taking control. This will take Tim to a war he is unable to escape.

The war itself introduces Tim to Curt Lemon, who wants to keep his new respect of brother hood. When Curt appeared cowardly in front of the men by fainting at the dentist, the boy seemed to take it quite poorly. The soldiers looked over this, saying, 'He seemed a little dazed. We might hear him cussing now and then, bawling himself out. Anyone else would’ve laughed it off, but it was to much for Curt Lemon.”

Although no one pressures him, Curt Lemon's thinking of not living up to his expectations of what a soldier should be takes on a harsh tole. His failure to let go of appearing cowardly makes him feel like he's letting down somebody. Then Curt would pull his tooth out to try to show that he wasn't the coward he thought he was, despite the fact that his teeth were fine.

Soldiers seem to care too much about what others are going to say, even if nobody seems to care. After the war, we find that while soldiers fulfilled the expectations of their family, they are in a much worse position than expected. It is shown that characters like Norman Bowker are struggling to regain a connection with others, mostly his father. The father of Norman had a misguided idea of what his son was going to be like in the war, how many medals he was going to win.

Norman brings several medals to show for his service when he returns home, but he can't get over not getting The Silver Star yet. He would only bring up his Silver Star with his father when he thought about talking to others about the experience, he would keep thinking how, “He would not say a word about how he’d almost won the Silver Star for Valor… “The Silver Star?” his father might have said.”

The inability of Norman Bowker to let go of his medal fixation and the need for a better relationship with his father is not healthy. It brings Norman back to the dark places he'd better forget about in the war and makes him feel distant from other civilians. In this, Norman is much the same as Tim because both of them regret not being able to accomplish things in the past. After he decided to go to war, when he says, the readers learn more about Tim's current feelings about this “I survived, but it’s not a happy ending.

I was a coward. I went to war.” The idea of letting people down was driven by Tim never wanted to go to war. He still believes that this was a mistake and when he went along with it, his own opinion of himself was ruined. Some might argue that soldiers ' expectations are important because they push them to reach a certain war standard, but what is unknown is that they can not distinguish when that standard is met. War veteran Jake Wood was interviewed to discuss fellow soldier Clay Hunt's suicide.

Jake expresses his sense of responsibility for the suicide of Clay, saying, “I was Clay's partner in sniper school, and if there's one thing that you learn, is that you never under any circumstance, let your partner down.” Jake hoped that he could protect his fellow men at all times, even after the war. Jake put a pressure on him that no one put on him, but a pressure from the necessities of war.

Expectations on soldiers have a clear negative effect regardless of their expectations. They are putting pressure on the soldiers to achieve impossible goals and putting the need to avoid disappointment ahead of the soldier's own beliefs that lead to their unhappiness. To be expected to do great things is quite common for young men, but in something as confusing and vague as war instead of school or work is very difficult for them to live up to.

References

1. Bloom, Harold. Tim OBriens The Things They Carried. Chelsea House, 2011. “The Life and Death of Clay Hunt.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, www.cbsnews.com/news/the-life-and-death-of-clay-hunt/3/.