In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses indirect characterization to shine a light on the way soldiers view the idea of bravery in the Vietnam War. In the chapters “The Things They Carried,” and “Speaking of Courage,” the author describes how the soldiers had come to fear the idea of not being courageous, perhaps because, if one was not brave enough, they would perish in the strange and foreign land of Vietnam. However, a more plausible reason for them acting in this manner could be because they were expected, as both men and soldiers, to not show fear when times got hard, even if they’re terrified. The soldiers were expected to put on a strong front and be unshaken by the horrors of Vietnam. Moreover, the extent of this practice is shown in how they were expected to not …show more content…
An example of this would be how Lieutenant Jimmy Cross “would get up and move among his men, checking the perimeter, then at full dark, he would return to his hole and watch the night and wonder if Martha was a virgin” (O’Brien 2). This indirectly characterizes him and the rest of the soldiers since it shows the conditions that they lived in and how they act and think. These conditions are so harsh, in both the physical and mental aspects, that even the Lieutenant had to hide his emotions until no one could see him. The soldiers were all obviously scared, with the constant warfare going on around them, but hesitated to acknowledge it and definitely did not act on it, since they were “too frightened to be cowards” (O’Brien 21). Another example of how they felt about the idea of being bold and not backing down was when they would say “fierce mocking [things]” but their words had “a trace of envy [and] awe” (O’Brien 21). This shows how they all wanted to leave, and when people were able to leave, they talked badly about them, but they also wanted to leave themselves. When Ted Lavender was shot in the