Man Will Be Man

He was more afraid of losing the girl in his life rather than losing his fellow man until he realise that shouldn’t be the case.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, a Vietnam veteran, tells stories of a platoon during Vietnam War. Some of his stories are imaginary, some aren’t, but one thing is true the platoon is full of young men. Many people and actions have influenced these men on or during their journey there. But who has influenced them the most? Women taught and reminded them of how the war changed people through Mary Anne Bell’s transformation as well as the ignorance of the narrator’s own daughter toward his past and the love soldiers carry for those they leave behind, and the Vietnam War.

The presence of Mary Anne Bell, a woman, reflects the idea that even the most innocent can be abruptly corrupted by the war. Mark Fossie, one of the soldiers in the platoon decided to sneak his girlfriend to the war and campsites, where they were staying but lived to regret it. At the time he didn’t know what to do. “Mark Fossie stood rigid. ‘Do something,’ he whispered. ‘I can’t just let her go like that.’ Rat listened for a time, then shook his head. ‘Man, you must be deaf. She’s already gone’” (O’Brien 107). Mary Anne Bell has come to Vietnam, beautiful young, interested in the world, and soft. But with each passing day, the war began changing her in various ways. She became less empathetic, and more importantly less interested in Mark. Before the war started changing her, all the soldiers showed jealousy for her, ‘so innocent’, ‘The war still hasn’t gotten to her’. They were also attracted to her, even with a small glance from her. Boys noticing the change acknowledged it and also recognized the effects of the war on an innocent person. This woman has influenced the men in the platoon in a way for them to recognize innocence pre and after the War. Not only that, O’Brien uses fiction to teach readers.

When telling the story to his fictional, according to the interview, daughter, Tim exposes her as ignorant of his past (Clark). Throughout the chapter “Field Trip” Kathleen O’Brien keeps on asking her father unaware questions, however, O’Brien did this on purpose: “That’s fiction, I made it up. She’s made up, too, I don’t have any daughters. I needed a child to ask hard questions, “Daddy, did you kill anybody?” which is the question that generates that ambush chapter. Adults don’t ask those questions, they’re too polite and well-mannered”(Clark). She also calls him weird: ”You know something? Sometimes you’re pretty weird, aren’t you”.(O’Brien 175) Readers will feel bad for Tim. His own daughter has complete ignorance of what he has done for the country and the choices he made in order to survive; nevertheless, she has influenced him in a way to write a story about her, even though we later find out she wasn’t real. That story shows us how people can be ignorant of veterans when they just want to open up and tell people about what they have been through. Kathleen became an entryway to write about and share his own experiences and thoughts about people who haven’t gone to war. Unfortunately, women were used as scapegoats for men’s own failures.

In the first chapter of The Things They Carried Tim opens the book by showing what each soldier in the platoon carries. He shows both tangible and intangible items. The first character Tim opens with is Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who carries photos and letters from a girl named Martha: “More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her, but the letters were mostly chatty, elusive on the matter of love. She was a virgin, he was almost sure.” (O’Brien 1). This girl has been in Jimmy’s heart every day throughout the war until the pictures were burned. The girl has influenced him negatively due to him losing his sense of caring for his fellow soldiers, after all, he was in charge of the platoon. His own soldiers had their life on the line. Martha hasn’t been fully developed in the novel, however, she functions as a distraction for Jimmy from protection from his fellow soldiers. He was more afraid of losing the girl in his life rather than losing his fellow man until he realise that shouldn’t be the case.

Women in The Things They Carry have a great influence on the man whether it’s negative or positive. Soldiers have been influenced to learn from them and remind themselves what innocence before the war looks like and how people change and come back home after it. Not only that, but O’Brien uses the image of a young girl, who was his own ten-year-old daughter, to show us the generalization of people toward people with war experience.

Work Cited

O’Brien, Tim. Things They Carried. MARINER BOOKS, 2022.

Clark, Mike “Mike Clark: Interview with Author Tim O’Brien Is Illuminating.” The Florida Times-Union, Florida Times-Union, 3 June 2012, https://www.jacksonville.com/story/opinion/columns/mike-clark/2012/06/03/mike-clark-interview-author-tim-obrien-illuminating/15864806007/.