Themes of Guilt and Death

Shame and guilt are huge themes carried throughout each story in O’Brien’s novel “The Thing They Carried”.  In the story “On The Rainy River”, O’Brien mentions his feeling of obligation to join the war due to his fear of embarrassing his family and lack of appearing masculine if he did not become a solider. O’Brien even feels guilty throughout the war about killing the enemy. In the story, “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien explains how he killed a man with a grenade. O’Brien mentions hoe the man he killed is no different than any other man. He then, out of guilt, creates a story and a future for the man he killed as a sense of “un-killing” him. The second major theme throughout each story is death. I find the way O’Brien writes about death to be very interesting. Each time a character dies O’Brien’s writing becomes very circular and repetitive which gives the reader the sense of how much of an effect the deaths of other soldiers had on his emotions and psychological wellbeing. O’Brien makes the point that you never know when death is coming nor is there anything you can do to protect yourself from it. For example, Ted Lavender always carried extra ammo, but that did nothing for his protection when he killed by a random out of the blue bullet. O’Brien conveys you cannot predict death again when he shares the story of Curt Lemon. One minute he is playing around, the next he is dead from accidently stepping on a trap. Not being able to predict death drives someone of the soldiers crazy but also gives the soldiers a greater sense of appreciation for life. As O’Brien states in his story, "How to Tell a True War Story," “You’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead.” (O'Brien, 78)