A Man’s Foundation

Women are an embodiment of innocence in the novel. Standing to represent society and its’ ignorance of the war but also stereotyping women as softer and more innocent individuals. This stereotype benefits the men in a way that is necessary for their own survival. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien uses women to represent a number of different symbols through the novel, such as innocence, ignorance, hope, and strength. An original stereotype of women that used to give men power in society changed into a necessary perspective in order to have women become hope for the men once they were sent to war. Mary Anne Bell is an embodiment of vulnerability to the way demolishing her ignorance for the war and replacing it with a connection and an appreciation that gave her the bravery to become the war herself. The way the men had dreamed about Mary Anne Bell, as well as other female characters in the novel, gave the men a certain amount of protection from the war. Fantasizing about gentle and innocent women protected the parts of them that could feel love, as the war often desensitizing and broke men. The innocent and degrading image of women commonly seen through The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is not showing men as powerful, but rather the complete opposite; men are weakened by the war, and the stereotype of women being gentle and innocence gives them something to dream about amidst such a harsh reality.

Females in the novel stand to represent characteristics that men believe they should have, despite whether or not these characteristics are real or not in an effort to hold onto some fantasy for their own motivation. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, Jimmy Cross dreams about Martha as a girl to dream about and as a woman that he could’ve had sex with, “Her legs, he thought, were almost certainly the legs of a virgin… He should’ve carried her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long” (O’Brien 4). These two contrasting dreams stand to represent what a woman means to a man in society and what a woman means to a man in the war. There’s no real proof that Martha is or isn’t a virgin, however, that’s not the point of Jimmy Cross’ fantasy. A virgin is the symbol of innocence. It speaks to a gentle image, especially in a woman. He always pictured Martha as sweet and gentle, noting her most gentle features such as her weight and her knee. This quote represents the contrast of emotions he felt toward Martha. Part of him dreamt of her as a symbol of innocence to observe, the other dreamt of dominating her. Although she is an English major back in the states and he is stuck in Vietnam, he still manages to be painfully in love with her, holding onto that fantasy of her to keep him going through the tough times in the war. His distorted perspective of females may be more of a way to fool himself into happiness rather than to put women beneath himself. The delicate image of women shifts drastically later in the book when Mark Fossie’s girlfriend is introduced.

Mary Anne Bell was seen as nothing more than a girl, she shocked the boys when she went out with the Greenies. She was never the same after she got in touch with herself in Vietnam. This transition was surprising simply because she was a girl, nothing more than a sexist assumption made by the soldiers that felt lost in this place she felt so bare in. Tim O’Brien speaks through Rat Kiley’s voice to directly state that general presumptions made about women are incorrect and they are stronger than men often expect, “‘You got these blinders on about women. How gentle and peaceful they are. All that crap about how if we had a pussy for president there wouldn’t be no more wars. Pure garbage. You got to get rid of that sexist attitude’” (O’Brien 102). Rat Kiley gives Mitchell Sanders a lesson as he saw how Mary Anne changed. The war changed her in a way that the men had never seen it change someone before. Mary Anne Bell was a very strong and thoughtful woman. She came into the war with an open mind and became Vietnam herself. Originally, she was often referred to in a way that implied that she was only brave because she knew nothing about the real war. The rest of society did not truly understand the war, and never would without being placed directly into the fire. This representation of ignorance for the war slowly shifted into a complete embodiment of Vietnam and the war itself after she learned what the war truly was. Eddie Diamond had previously referred to her as having ‘D-cup guts, trainer bra brains.’ This implies that he thought she did not fear the war because she did not understand. As if her bravery was provoked by ignorance, but this was not the case. This sexist assumption is a reality and is prevalent throughout the story. This woman, Mary Anne Bell, was strong in a way that the rest of the men could comprehend and shocked every one of them. Rat Kiley picked up on this and accepted it, he then shares what he knows. In this quote, it is more than speaking to Mitchell Sanders. This quote is a lesson for the reader and every soldier in the book to learn. Women can be massively strong, vulnerable, and knowledgeable in the same situations that can be difficult for a man, but they are still not on equal playing fields at any point throughout the novel for one reason. This delusional sexism helps the men stay alive.

Dreaming of woman as stereotypically weak and gentle benefitted the men as it gave them something to hold on to, women were symbols of hope for the men. Tim O’Brien describes in detail the way that Jimmy Cross’s fantasy about Martha hurt the people around him, but occupied his mind with something greater and more hopeful than the war, “Lieutenant Cross kept to himself. He pictured Martha’s smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her” (O’Brien 6). Women affected the soldiers so deeply that they fell into a dreamlike state to escape from the war, even if for a second. This distracted from the task at hand, sometimes jeopardizing the safety of the other men. However, this distraction was necessary for mental stability. If not for daydreaming and storytelling, the men would be trapped in the harsh reality of the war. Women did not belong in the place that the soldiers’ minds set them in, but it was for their own selfish need to grip onto some gentle hope, real or fake. Each man had their own thing to hold onto, for Henry Dobbins it was his girlfriend’s stockings. The stocking held a sort of magic to Dobbins, even after he and his girlfriend broke up. This “magic” was the only form of hope these men had in the war. This distraction, as mentioned in the quote, could be the death of the people around the dreamer, but the dreamer would not stop fighting through the war themselves and that’s all that matters. This selfish way to protect was something each man had to do in their own way or else they would be nothing more than trauma and offensive jokes in an empty shell of a person.

No woman is the same, but each girl in this novel has a vital purpose to a man in this book. Tim O’Brien puts women in a true light in this novel and shows how the soldiers in this book had an incorrect and distorted view of females. The inaccurate fantasy of a woman kept them going, as hope or motivation it worked for many of the soldiers and was necessary to their perserverence through the war and through life following. Tim O’Brien crushed this stereotype of innocence typically related to women by using Mary Anne Bell as a figure that shifted drastically as a strong woman who put herself into the war environment and adapted with complete vulnerable to its harsh reality. She refused to be ignorant and innocence and ended up developed a very strong connection to Vietnam and the war itself. The false image of women as innocent and ignorant, much like American society during the time of the war, was a tool used by the men to persevere through the war by holding onto women as a symbol of happiness and hope. This puts men in an honest place of weaknesses and how women have the ability to be strong enough to lift them.