Sample Critical Analysis on 'The Things They Carried'



ENGL 1302: Sample Critical Analysis

Please return this document to me when you turn in your first critical analysis.

In the following essay, notice especially how the writer

• includes an academic title.

• uses a technique--a quotation--to grab the reader's attention.

• identifies in the introduction the title and author of the short story.

• puts the thesis statement--the statement of the story's theme and the main ideas of each body paragraph--at the end of the introduction.

• creates specific topic sentences. The topic sentences should repeat the same phrases that appear in the thesis statement. In the thesis statement and topic sentences below, I have highlighted those phrases. I have also underlined the transitional phrases between the paragraphs. If your topic sentences do not contain those three elements--restatement of the theme, statement of the paragraph's main idea, and a transition--your essay is not "coherent"; in other words, the ideas are not logically related together. Including these items is also a way to ensure that you are analyzing the work instead of just summarizing the story.

• refers to the theme of emotional or mental burdens not only in the thesis statement and topic sentences but also in the title and conclusion.

• develops paragraphs that are about half a page long--not too long or too short.

• thoroughly analyzes the story.

• smoothly integrates quotations.

• uses the present tense.

• does not use first-person and second-person pronouns such as "I" and "you."

• double-spaces the essay and uses one-inch margins and 12-point font.

• includes page numbers for quotations.

• in the conclusion refers back to the introductory quotation.

Carrying the Cross: The Burdens of Emotion in "The Things They Carried"

"Pejor est bello timor ipse belli." Seneca, a Roman philosopher and dramatist, expresses that "Worse than war is the fear of war." Through this description of war, Seneca distinguishes the physical aspect of war and the emotional or psychological aspect. He also expounds that the emotional side dominates the physical. Through the sands of time, this idea has remained intact. Tim O’Brien, author of "The Things They Carried," voices the idea that the mental burdens outweigh the physical agony that those in war must carry: "They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight" (258). O’Brien argues that fear, longing, responsibility, and uncertainty that the soldiers experience far outweigh the physical torture that they must endure in order to stay alive, burdens that are lightened only a little by the hope of returning home.

The mental burden that probably weighs the most on the hearts of the men is fear. This fear comes from many sources. The men are constantly haunted by the fear that they may die. Ted Lavender’s death and how the men react to it show its impact on the soldiers. Kiowa expresses the sense of weight that the threat of death has on the men when he describes Lavender’s death: "Boom down, he said. Like cement" (250). Lavender’s death is described as being like stone, something massive and heavy. The death of Lavender is repeated several times throughout the story. The repetition is used in order to show the fear in the men. This scene constantly goes through their head as they fearfully await their fate. This lurking of fate, in their minds, serves as emotional baggage that the men must sustain. The soldiers also carry "the soldier’s greatest fear, which [is] the fear of blushing" (258). The men’s concern for their reputation is one of the heaviest burdens they have to carry. The men fear being called a coward, and they dread the embarrassment that they will feel if they die dishonorably. It is almost as if the soldiers fight and even die because they are ashamed not to. The men’s burdensome amount of fear only adds to their montage of pain.

Another emotional load besides fear that the men have to "hump" is the longing to be with loved ones. In the Vietnam War, many young men were forced to leave their wives and families to fight for a questionable cause. In this particular story, Martha serves as a representation of family. Lieutenant Cross, the man in charge of the soldiers, longs to be reunited with Martha. Martha occupies much of Cross’s time and weighs heavily on his heart every night when "he would return to his hole and watch the night and wonder if Martha was a virgin" (248). This repeated idea of Martha’s virginity has a symbolic importance to the story. Virginity usually implies purity and a lack of maturity or experience. Martha is seen as one who is pure in heart and body, and she serves as a measuring rod against which the corrupted minds of the soldiers can be compared. Cross is faced with the violence of war and looks to Martha as a way to lighten the load that he is carrying. Unfortunately, Cross’s fantasy ends up causing more bad than good.

In addition to longing, responsibility is one more emotional burden that weighs upon the minds of the men. Cross serves as the best example of a soldier burdened by responsibility. Cross is responsible for all the men since he is their leader. Cross’s preoccupation with Martha leads to the death of Lavender, and he must suffer the pain of guilt. Due to his foolishness, Cross is responsible for Lavender’s death. In the end, Cross burns the photographs and letters that Martha has sent him. This is his attempt to "burn the blame," but Cross learns that this is impossible (259). He must forget about Martha and add onto his load the full responsibility for all of his men. Cross’s very name is symbolic of the weight that he must bear. This allusion to the Bible represents the greatest burden that has ever been carried. The lieutenant’s name makes him analogous to Christ. Cross, as Christ did, must carry the weight of all of his men upon his shoulders. He is responsible for the outcome of their lives. This responsibility is one of the heaviest of burdens that Cross must carry.

While Cross is troubled with responsibility for his men, his men are burdened mentally by uncertainty. For example, they are uncertain about if they will die. Another burning question that is on everyone’s mind concerns the purpose of the Vietnam War--why are the soldiers even there? They march "without purpose" (80) and wrestle with the "ambiguities of Vietnam" (81). This uncertainty of why the soldiers are in Vietnam causes feelings of doubt in their sense of well-being. It becomes harder for them to withstand the pain of emotional burdens when the reason for their fighting is unknown.

In contrast with the sense of emotional and physical weight that is maintained throughout the story, one element of hope for the soldiers emerges. The description of the jumbo jet creates a feeling of almost weightlessness. The jumbo jet is described as being "more than a plane, it [is] a real bird, a big sleek silver bird with feathers and talons" (259). The men long to soar above the earth, away from the pains of war and death. The jet is an escape from the physical and, even more importantly, the emotional burdens that the men carry into war. The men "dreamed of freedom birds" and long for the freedom and weightlessness that a bird feels (259). All the men have to do is survive long enough to ride on this jet in which "the weights [fall] off" and "there is nothing to bear" (259). Once the men reach the point of escape, they are free from the bondage of war and can live more at ease. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, many of the men are so traumatized by the weight of emotional burdens that they will live the rest of their lives in insanity and flashbacks of the war.

No matter how many material burdens a man carries into battle, he will have to shoulder far more weight in the emotional realm. All of the elements that O’Brien uses help to clarify that the many emotions that a soldier carries to war far outweigh the physical agony that he must endure. Whether one is referring to war in the time of Seneca and ancient Rome or the present, the scale will ultimately tilt towards emotional burdens when the physical and emotional baggage is weighed.

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