external conflicts

The story I chose for this assignment was The Things They Carried (Obrien 1990). This one was a little closer to home for me and I understood the characters point of view more than I thought I would when I picked it. This character interested me because I have been there in both places. I have been the LT and I have been the “Martha”. I have been in the position of day dreaming and hopng that one day I would be able to have the one thing or person I longed for and used that to get me through the battle. You take those life lines and you live on them. You feast on them and you depend on them, their words and stories to take you out of your own and let you live through them even if just for a little while. The theme is learning to live with the choices that you make and living in a fantasy world while living your true life. The best things in life are those you have to work for but also doing what is best for everyone and you in the end. The LT battled so many internal and external conflicts one of the biggest to me is when he saw her and their eyes met. His insides were wanting to be with her in one of those scenarios that he had dreamed of. Listen to her talk and not be doing what he was but as the external conflict of his duties and responsibilities being the military and his role he brought himself back to reality and he pushed her to the back of his mind and the troops and his duties to the front of it. The setting contributes to the meaning of the entire story because of where he started in the beginning and where he finished in the end. From digging fox holes and dreaming to leading troops and realizing the reality of the problem as opposed to fantasy.