Literary Analysis Essay on The Things They Carried and Release the Pain, Embrace the Joy

Introduction

An emotion is perceived to be a sincere sentiment. Happiness is one of the many feelings encountered by people. It is one of the most significant emotion humans can have hence the fundamental reason why they strive to achieve. However, without pain, how could we know joy? The irony of the human mind. Notably the story "The Things They Carried", by Tim O'Brien using Character, Theme, and Conflict shows joyful things can also bring painful feelings, because what can bring you joy can inversely bring you to pain In that, what we bear psychologically and physically can be the reason we triumph in glory or overloaded from the weight of our consciousness.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The first storytelling element I will use as an example will be C. In "The Things They Carried", a Vietnam War setting, LT Cross is the antagonist and protagonist in the story. He battles with self-guilt from carrying the psychological emotion to a girl named Martha who was his girlfriend. LT Cross would move Martha's letters around imagining things he should have done back then when he had the opportunity. He uses the memories of his girlfriend to survive in the war. He carried sentimental objects that reminded him of the love he had for Martha even though Martha did not love LT Cross the way he did. Which later made him neglect his duties due to daydreaming when a fellow soldier Ted Lavender was killed in action. Daydreaming of Martha being his woman is what kept him alive, in a sense, it gave him something to look forward and to keep going, but it's also what made him distracted and the reason he feels guilty because if he wasn't always thinking of her, maybe he could've saved his life. Sometimes the things we carry emotionally can leave us blind to what's ahead. This implies that there is always a joy when one loves a person. However, as depicted in this example, the pleasure turned into hatred after Lavender is killed. Cross believes he is the reason for his colleague's death since he was not executing his duties effectively because he was obsessed with Martha's memories.

This leads us to the next storytelling element of the central theme. The theme in this story I believe to be is love. Yes, love. When you carry love psychologically or tangibly, it can make or break you in the end, but that is the chances we take in life. In the story, each character carries with them things they hold dear and love but also bear out of necessity. If the soldiers came across sentimental items, they would pick them which served as souvenirs in the war. Such objects involved, AK-47s, letters, thump and pictures. Each item depicted a vulnerable side to their character. Which to me, is what love is, a state of vulnerability. The things they carried symbolized pieces of love, because the love of life, and whatever they deemed essential to bring with them through the trenches is what kept them alive.

But on the other hand, it could have been what made them end up like Ted Lavender too. As a veteran of the United States Navy, I too understand that the Love can lead us to the finish line or what some call paradise, but it can also leave you battling a war within yourself. For instance, towards the end, lieutenant blames himself for the death of one of his soldier which he believed to be caused by the love he had for Martha which turned out to be sour.

The next storytelling element from the story is Conflict. One of the conflicts in "The Things They Carried", is Human vs Self. LT Cross is fighting within himself for something he wants versus something he needs. He wants Martha, and all her memories she brings to him, which allowed him to feel human during the chaos around him in the trenches. If you are surrounded by insanity, you must find a way to keep your sanity. Like most things in life, there's always a flip side to every coin. The natural balance of life, the Ying and yang if you will. What can bring you joy can inversely bring you pain. The battle Cross fought within himself had come to a crossroads. Do you want to cling on the imaginary thought of Martha being yours, or do you need to survive and uphold your duties as a soldier? The things we carry mentally can make or break us physically.

Another element in the conflict I'd like to include is Human vs Human. Throughout the story, each character including LT Cross was at battle mentally with each other to not show fear of the reality around them. Pride won't let them show it as they continue to push forward being weighed down by all the emotional and physical loads of the war. But ironically it is not the fear of death that most soldiers fear; it is the fear of embarrassment. The men killed and died mainly because they were embarrassed not to. According to Tim O'Brien, cowardice is a shared secret among soldiers. Who wants to carry around something that will get them killed? So, to mask this, fear, the soldiers would replace fear with things they carried tangibly, and psychologically. Courageous characters are perceived to be inspiring models, but the coward soldiers are always criticized. The pressures of survival along with the fear of embarrassment of being a coward was the catalyst that pushed this story along. After the events of the war, cowardice makes the narrator face his fear, particularly on the coastal river while Jimmy Cross is driven by the courage to get rid of the letters that kept him busy or sustained.

Additionally, the other story that validates the theme discussed in this work is, "Release the Pain, Embrace the Joy", written by Hammond Michelle. The book illustrates the joy and the sweet dreams which are experienced in a relationship (Hammond n.p). However, once the relationship has ended, people tend to cry as they look for a person to talk to and to get back their emotional stability. The aspect of being disappointed or misled in the end causes a lot of pain that makes a person not to love again. Therefore, the book supports the notion that the same love that brings happiness can, in turn, bring back pain and that humans need to embrace the pain and hatred positively.

The things we carry ultimately details the physical and emotional burdens we harbor in life. Through character, theme, and conflict as well as other storytelling elements not discussed, Tim O'Brien shows that what can bring you joy can inversely bring you pain because the things we carry psychologically and sensibly can make or break us individually and as a society.

Works Cited

Hammond, Michelle McKinney. Release the Pain, Embrace the Joy. Regal Books, 2005.