What Is The Theme Of War In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

War can tear you up. You’re trained to defend your country against all who are determined to bring you and those with you down, you’ll go in pure and innocent and come out with a new aspect in life. The Things they Carried written by Tim O’Brien demonstrates the hardship that the men in Alpha Company had to undergo as well as all they had to carry with them. Not only physically, like the grenade launchers and the assault riffles but also figuratively; they will have to live with the memory of watching soldiers that are fighting with them be shot and killed instantly. Sometimes they may just even blame themselves, like Lieutenant Jimmy Cross did, when Lavender is shot in the head, he got distracted for just a mere second but that took the life of one of his own. …show more content…
For example Azar can be said to have lost his touch with civilized society; his actions indicate that war has changed him as a person, when the story first began we saw him as a pleasant person but it's all a facade as we learn about who he really is. When we come up to the part when he gives the poor child with one leg a piece of chocolate we warm up to his character for the kind gesture he’s done; but as his character unfolds we realize that he isn’t the kind person he puts himself to be. Azar goes on to say that a soldier had ran out of ammo which basically meant that he believed the soldier wasn’t able to finish the job and kill the little boy. As humans we pity those who have less than us but Azar pitied those who weren’t