Analysis Of 'The Dentist, By Tim O Brien's The Things They Carriet'

With war comes many things such as shame, guilt, or embarrassment. Some soldiers are ashamed of themselves because they are weak and are unable to perform like others. Other soldiers carry the burden, a heavy load of guilt with them caused by the death of their comrades. In the chapter “ The Dentist “ from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, uses negative diction and descriptive imagery to portray that even if a person can handle immeasurable pain, they struggle to handle the feeling of shame and embarrassment.
The author uses the chapter “ The Dentist” to display the feelings of shame and guilt Curt Lemon felt. O'Brien did not like Curt Lemon or knew about him much. He admits that it was hard to mourn Lemon’s death because he didn’t …show more content…
O’Brien says, “ ...What i did know was not impressive.” . Even though O’Brien did not know much about Curt Lemon, he goes on and tells readers why he did not like Curt. “ ….That was too high for his own good.”, He states exactly what his opinion of Curt Lemon is, O’Brien talks about how Curt always acted like the tough soldier and how he always thought too highly of himself. To not get sentimental about Curt Lemon’s death, O’Brien tells a quick story about Curt. He tells the story about how when everyone had to get their teeths checked by the army dentist. “ Curt Lemon began to tense up.”, he was petrified to get a check up because he had bad experiences with dentists he had seen back in highschool. He then takes a look at where the dentist was giving the soldiers check ups and says he refuses to get a check up because there was something about dentists that gave him the creeps. When it finally came down to Curt Lemon’s turn, he stood and walked towards the dentist. O’Brien states that “ four of us had to hoist him up and…” because Curt Lemon had passed out even before the army dentist had touched …show more content…
“ ..been caught committing some terrible crime”, this signifies Curt Lemon is ashamed of how he had behaved with the dentist and how he is guilty because he had thought of himself as the big tough soldier and here he was passing out before the dentist even laid a finger on him. “ the embarrassment must’ve turned a screw..” Curt Lemon could not be himself and wouldn't talk to anyone because he had been too embarrassed with his experience with the army dentist where he had passed out. Ashamed by his encountered with the army dentist, he woke up in the middle of the night, crept down to the dental tent, where he woke up the army dentist and told him he had a monster toothache. Though the dentist did not find any problems with Curt Lemon’s tooth, he eventually yanked out a perfectly healthy tooth after Curt Lemon kept