The Birthmark 'And The Things They Carried'

A theme is an abstract, general idea that should not be too specific. "It is a general ideal rather than one that describes the characters, plot, or settings unique to one story" (Norton, 385), and these different literary elements are used by writers to make comments on these themes. "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne and "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien both carry the themes about love and death. In "The Birthmark", Hawthorne uses Aylmer and Georgiana, a couple, to ask questions about love. Aylmer is obsessed with Georgiana's birthmark on her cheek and he cannot stop thinking about removing it. All he can see is her tiny imperfection and he is incapable of loving his beautiful wife, because of one flaw on her cheek. He thinks this one human imperfection is blocking her beauty and he really wants to get rid of it. Georgiana agrees to let him do a surgery, because she loves him, and she wants Aylmer to love her. She says, "danger is nothing to me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust, - life is a burden" (Hawthorne, 18). At the moment he removes her birthmark, she dies. Aylmer achieves his wish to remove his wife's birthmark, but he lost a greater thing: his wife. All humans are flawed and …show more content…
He thinks about the time when Jimmy Cross visits him at his home many years after the war. They spend a full day, recollecting their good and bad memories of the war. O'Brien asks Jimmy Cross about Martha. O'Brien remembers that Jimmy Cross burned her photograph after feeling guilty of Lavender's death and was mad at Martha for not loving him back. Jimmy Cross tells O'Brien that they met at a college reunion and had a long conversation, catching up and she gave a photograph of her after having a date. Jimmy Cross confesses he still loves Martha, but he does not mention Martha anymore while they are having a