How Love May Not Provide Successful Comfort
Warzones can be incredibly violent, terrifying, and gruesome places. Especially during the Vietnam War, when soldiers had very long deployments in horrid conditions, one major way to deal with the difficult environment was to remember that there was a world beyond it. Even in civilian life, a very positive way to deal with stress is to remember that there is a life outside of the stressor. In the short stories in his book The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien explores how men use pre-traumatic images of beloved females to cope with trauma, and how human’s desire for permanence manifests in these traumatic moments. The girls in these stories symbolize peaceful, happier times as a mechanism for the men …show more content…
To preserve a reminder of a pre-combat life, Mark Fossie tries to keep the innocence of his girlfriend in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong and the young soldier searches for a picture of a girl from back home in In the Field. Both men try to hold on to tangible representations of their girls, even when the women are different than the ideals the men are trying to hold on to, and eventually, the disparity between their ideal of their girls and the tangible reality is what causes them the most pain. Throughout Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, Mary-Anne, Mark Fossie’s girlfriend, changes to a girl shaped by war and combat, while Fossie becomes more and more uncomfortable with her behavior, until he finally snaps at her. Mary-Anne’s behavior then becomes more refined and subdued, similar to how she acted before the war, and Fossie acts “as if nothing had ever come between them, or ever could, but there was a fragility to it, something tentative and false” (99). The complexity of the long sentence with multiple clauses mirrors the complexity of Fossie and Mary-Anne’s …show more content…
Similarly to the young soldier who carried Billie’s picture, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross used to carry letters and pictures of a girl from back home named Martha. Both the young soldier and Cross felt like they killed their comrades because of their focus on these women, but while the young soldier continues to obsess over the picture, Cross finds composure in abandoning his love. At first, he carried letters from Martha that “weighed 4 ounces” and “humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps” (2, 3). Cross carried the letters even though they added weight, which the specific detail illustrates, to what he carried. He was so in love with Martha that we was willing to commit and carry her letters through difficult terrain. He pretended, fantasized, and obsessed about Martha as a way to comfort himself, just as many did with their girls. However, when Ted Lavender died, Cross felt personally responsible and let go of Martha “because she belonged to another world, which was not quite real” (16). Instead of continuing to use Martha as a reminder of the world outside the war, Cross comes to accept that his world is the war, and labels the world in which Martha lives as unreal. In this acceptance, though he grieves for his former self, he finds peace. Therefore, when Kiowa dies in In the Field, Cross does not turn to a female to try to
Warzones can be incredibly violent, terrifying, and gruesome places. Especially during the Vietnam War, when soldiers had very long deployments in horrid conditions, one major way to deal with the difficult environment was to remember that there was a world beyond it. Even in civilian life, a very positive way to deal with stress is to remember that there is a life outside of the stressor. In the short stories in his book The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien explores how men use pre-traumatic images of beloved females to cope with trauma, and how human’s desire for permanence manifests in these traumatic moments. The girls in these stories symbolize peaceful, happier times as a mechanism for the men …show more content…
To preserve a reminder of a pre-combat life, Mark Fossie tries to keep the innocence of his girlfriend in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong and the young soldier searches for a picture of a girl from back home in In the Field. Both men try to hold on to tangible representations of their girls, even when the women are different than the ideals the men are trying to hold on to, and eventually, the disparity between their ideal of their girls and the tangible reality is what causes them the most pain. Throughout Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, Mary-Anne, Mark Fossie’s girlfriend, changes to a girl shaped by war and combat, while Fossie becomes more and more uncomfortable with her behavior, until he finally snaps at her. Mary-Anne’s behavior then becomes more refined and subdued, similar to how she acted before the war, and Fossie acts “as if nothing had ever come between them, or ever could, but there was a fragility to it, something tentative and false” (99). The complexity of the long sentence with multiple clauses mirrors the complexity of Fossie and Mary-Anne’s …show more content…
Similarly to the young soldier who carried Billie’s picture, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross used to carry letters and pictures of a girl from back home named Martha. Both the young soldier and Cross felt like they killed their comrades because of their focus on these women, but while the young soldier continues to obsess over the picture, Cross finds composure in abandoning his love. At first, he carried letters from Martha that “weighed 4 ounces” and “humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps” (2, 3). Cross carried the letters even though they added weight, which the specific detail illustrates, to what he carried. He was so in love with Martha that we was willing to commit and carry her letters through difficult terrain. He pretended, fantasized, and obsessed about Martha as a way to comfort himself, just as many did with their girls. However, when Ted Lavender died, Cross felt personally responsible and let go of Martha “because she belonged to another world, which was not quite real” (16). Instead of continuing to use Martha as a reminder of the world outside the war, Cross comes to accept that his world is the war, and labels the world in which Martha lives as unreal. In this acceptance, though he grieves for his former self, he finds peace. Therefore, when Kiowa dies in In the Field, Cross does not turn to a female to try to