Shame As Motivation
In The Things They Carried , the feeling of shame seems to guide many of the character’s actions. It acts almost like a source of motivation for members of the Alpha Company. The most obvious example of this idea is seen in the narrator, Tim O’Brien, himself. In “On the Rainy River,” O’Brien has to decide whether or not to fight in the Vietnam War, which he knows little about at the time. Ultimately though, he decides to go to war. Not because he’s patriotic or because he believes in the war’s cause, but because he’s afraid of what others will think of him for dodging the draft. O’Brien thinks about how he’d lose his parents’ respect and imagines his neighbors gossiping about him at a cafe. This fear of being thought a coward is what ultimately pushes him to return home from Canada and fight in the war. O’Brien is so ashamed of this moment that, up until now, he has never told anyone this story. A similar situation occurs with Jimmy Cross. He only signed up for th