O'Brien Theme

            In The Things They Carried, there are numerous themes that O’Brien writes about. The theme that stuck out the most to me was the fear of shame used as motivation. O’Brien is fearful of the war and he reveals this to his audience in his story “On The Rainy River”.  Most soldiers go to war because of their patriotism, but not O’Brien.  He flees to Canada for a couple of days, but returns to United States to go to Vietnam because he is afraid of the ridicule that would come from his family and his community. “I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile” (42). O’Brien blames his community for making him go to the war. “ I detested their blind, thoughtless, automatic acquiescence to it all, their simpleminded patriotism, their prideful ignorance, how they were sending me off to fight a war they didn’t understand and didn’t want to understand. I held them responsible.” O’Brien goes to the war because of the shame that would come about if he didn’t go. Shame does not only affect O’Brien, but also his fellow soldiers. For example, in the story, “The Dentist” Curt Lemon is afraid of the dentist and faints when he goes in to see him. He decides to get his tooth pulled just because he feels like he owes it to himself in order to fit back into the group again. There is nothing wrong with his tooth, but he gets it pulled so he can face his fear and get respect back from the group. This makes his shame disappear and allows him to feel comfortable with the group again. Throughout the novel so far, shame has been a huge factor in how the soldiers go about their business. Shame seems to get them to do missions that they would ordinarily not do.