Death and Grief

Paper Summary:

The paper examines two literary works and shows how they both portray the expression of grief of an individual as being influenced by the environment surrounding him. The paper looks at the reaction of the young infantry lieutenant in "The Things We Carried" and the Hindu woman in "The Management of Grief." The paper discusses how just as our personalities are different, our reactions to death are myriad and at times unpredictable.

From the Paper:

"O'Brien's The Things They Carried shows a young infantry lieutenant's obsession of the false romance resulting from the death of one of his soldiers. After the death of one of his men, the lieutenant takes full responsibility and the blame: "He [Lieutenant] felt shame. He hated himself. [Then change came and] He was realistic about it. There was that new hardness in his stomach. No more fantasies, he told himself (341, 5)." Such tragedy, seeing face-to-face his soldier's gruesome demise could render a normal person into a state of shock. Yet in the time of war, people do not have the luxury of immediately feeling grief for in the battle zone, one must and should move on lest they become the next casualty in the fog of war."

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