The Shameful Eight

In the war novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, some soldiers carried machine guns; some soldiers carried the Bible; some soldiers even carried pictures of their girlfriend; but one thing every soldier carried is the shame that was buried deep in their hearts. Shame plays a very important role throughout the story of The Things They Carried. Shame can motivate, or discourage people from going to war; shame brings guilt to the soldiers after traumatizing events; shame is also a factor that made the stories so special. 

War can drive a sane man crazy. Some people were given the opportunity to run away from the war after getting the draft notice, but why would someone choose to go to war knowing the consequences? As it turns out, shame is one of the main driving forces that pushed people towards war. Tim was faced with two options down the road. He could either choose to run away from the war and his current life, escape to Canada; or he has to go to war and put his life at risk. Eventually he decides:“I would go to war – I would kill and maybe die – because I was embarrassed not to” (O’Brien 57). Tim himself wanted to leave everything behind, and run off to Canada, but that means everyone in his life would be disappointed in him. Rather than following his will, he was ashamed by the public, and that led to him going to the war. Although shame pushed Tim towards war, it acted in the opposite direction soon after he went to war. Tim was ashamed that he went to war eventually; all that effort and mental stress for nothing. He confesses: “I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward, I went to war” (O’Brien 58). This clean statement contains so much that O’Brien wants to express. The use of repetition made it feel like a self reflection filled with frustration and shame.Two simple sentences summed up O’Brien’s feelings towards going to the war. He is ashamed that he went to war, he is ashamed that he betrayed his conscience, and let the public get the best of him, he is ashamed of so many things, but history can not be changed, he went to war. 

Not only is shame an important deciding factor when entering the war, it can also affect soldiers greatly during the war. Soldiers often find themselves feeling guilty out of shame after traumatizing events. In the opening chapter, the death of Ted Lavender brought immeasurable guilt to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. “He felt shame, He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (O’Brien 16). Martha is where Jimmy Cross’ hope lies. She represents a sense of home for him, but he thinks that it is the distraction from Martha that caused him to be unable to save Ted Lavender. Ashamed of this, but can not speak to anyone, Jimmy Cross took it hard on himself. The simile used to describe the shame of Ted Lavender’s death, to a stone in Jimmy Cross’ stomach, showed just how much he blamed himself for it. Another example of shame translating to guilt is how Tim felt towards the death of Kiowa. “In the Field” is the chapter where O’Brien reviews the truth about Tim’s involvement in the death of Kiowa. “Like Jimmy Cross, the boy was explaining things to an absent judge. It wasn’t to defend himself. The boy recognized his own guilt and wanted only to lay out the full causes” (O’Brien 163). Tim is so ashamed that he could not use his name while telling the truth. Tim is calling himself ignorant by referring to himself in the story as “The boy”. Him “explaining things to an absent judge” shows how frustrated he was with himself. He could not forgive himself, and the guilt would stay with Tim for the rest of his life.

Apart from how shame affects the soldiers, the most important role that it plays in the novel is that shame makes all the stories special. The use of meta-fiction added an extra layer to the story, and what makes the special is the fact that the narrator is ashamed of telling the story. Before Tim told the story of trying to run away from war, he said: “this is one story I’ve never told before. Not to anyone. Not to my parents, not to my brother or sister, not even to my wife. To go into it, I’ve always thought, would only cause embarrassment for all of us, a sudden need to be elsewhere, which is a natural response to a confession” (O’Brien 37). Because of what he eventually decided, and what that decision meant for him, Tim has never told anyone that story. This shame that he carries makes the readers wonder what is going to happen in the story, also makes the readers feel like O’Brien is talking to them directly one on one. For Tim, this is not a story that he told, it is a confession that he made. Tim, being the narrator of all the stories, has other ones that he is embarrassed of. “The Ghost Soldiers” is one of them. Tim and Azar pulled a very overboard prank on Bobby Jorgenson, who accidentally mistreated Tim, almost causing Tim to die. However, is it once again not a happy ending, after the prank, “I was trembling, I kept hugging myself, rocking, but I couldn’t make it go away” (O’Brien 206). Tim realized that although Jorgenson almost cost him to die, he is still his comrade. Tim realized that it is so difficult under that intense situation, and has the calm and experience to treat someone properly. Tim realized that he should have never done this to Jorgenson. It is very special that Tim put shame on himself and made himself an unlikeable character in this story, but once again, he was telling his real feelings, a real war story. 

“The use of meta-fiction added an extra layer to the story, and what makes the special is the fact that the narrator is ashamed of telling the story”

The Things They Carried is such an impactful piece of literature, in the form of short stories. It is a shame that ties all of these stories together, making it feel real, making it feel special. How O’Brien is able to show the soldiers’ shame through: motivation of war, traumatizing events, and special stories that the narrator feels shameful towards, added even more complexity to the story. After reading all the stories, will the reader remember Tim as a soldier that fought hard in the Vietnam War, or the boy that still feels guilty towards the death of his best friend?