Comfort In Deadly Distractions

In response to The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Distraction comes with a cost. It is used for comfort or relief. Distraction takes away complete focus, leaving a person completely vulnerable. However, distraction can lead to destruction and will mislead the mind.

Tim O'Brien, the author of The Things They Carried, explains the fictional yet realistic reality of being a soldier in the Vietnam War. Each man that treks along the paddies of Vietnam carries a collection of weapons, supplies, etc. but most importantly they carry fear. The death sentence waiting to happen when in war. Each man holds the weight of death above them, fearing the brutality of war and what it could do to them. They needed a safe haven, something to keep them grounded and shield off the deathly vibes. They needed distractions.

A group of young, vulnerable men are placed in a foreign country that is a total war zone and the only thought that haunts them is death. Spending each day in an unknown world that belongs to the enemy isn’t exactly the most comforting way to spend your life, so as a result of that each soldier carries the common feeling of fear. The stories that the author has explained so far in the book has no action. There is no actual war that is present. No enemies have been named, seen, or mentioned but just knowing that there are people out there that are set to kill them keeps the men on edge and frightened. To conciliate the literal life-threatening thought of dying, each member of the team had specific objects or people to boost their confidence. For example, Lieutenant Cross had his love for a maiden named Martha as a reason to survive and Ted Lavender had marijuana to keep him calm and relaxed. Ironically though, in the fields of war, those distractions will lead them to the one thing they are using them to avoid: death.

When tensions are high and bodies are tired of constantly being on high alert, taking a little break and losing focus seems like the best option, but it’s not. Two men, so far, have died because of distractions. The war was so intense and fearing death can be tiresome so there are times where they had to be vulnerable. Like when a man survived the possibility of dying, “The men laughed. They all felt great relief. Lee Strunk made a funny ghost sound...when he went Ahhooooo, right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing” (O’Brien 12). Just simply going to the bathroom and letting his guard down for those .2 seconds killed him. The brief happiness and jokes that were being thrown around, blocking out the thought of dying, left one man vulnerable and dead. The other man was Curt Lemon. He was a man that denied the seriousness of war to distract him from its morbidity. On the field, “Lemon and Rat Kiley started goofing. They didn’t understand about the spookiness. They were giggling, playing a silly game they’d invented. There was a noise, I suppose, which must’ve been the detonator…” (O’Brien 69-70). His death was also unexpected and occurred at a point of vulnerability. He didn’t want to accept the reality of what happens to soldiers during war and his shenanigans to avoid it ended up being his downfall. In war, there was no hiding from death.