Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried Eating Them Away

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the parasite is not solely in his return Vietnam,
but rather a constant personal preoccupation that seems to flow through
the collection of stories. O'Brien shows how the memories of the war take
on a parasitic form, and uses himself as an example.
In the chapter ³Speaking of Courage², O'Brien introduces a character by
the name of Norman Bowker. In the story Norman finds him self home after
serving his time in Vietnam. Even though he is back in his home town,
things do not seem the same to him. The was seems to have put a new spin
on his life. Most of the story he spends driving in circles while thinking
about the war and his lack of place in his old society. The war becomes
his whole life, and he feels as though he is to far distant from the town
people for them to understand. The reader then finds out that Bowker
commits suicide because the parasitic affect of his memories became to
much for him to handle.
There is another section in the book where a man named Jimmy Cross ...

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