In a short excerpt from the book, The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, masculinity and its associations are shown to play a significant role in the actions of the main characters, who are male soldiers during the Vietnam War. Despite all the horrors and hardships that war and bloodshed have to offer, these men decide to stick with it and stay put in Vietnam instead of finding routes to get out and be out of harm’s way back in the United States of America. Some may argue that this motivation that these male soldiers had to stay involved with the war primarily stems from their devotion and love for their homeland. However, it can be contended that their motivation does not primarily come from devotion, but rather fear: the fear of losing their masculine image. 

Throughout the excerpt of The Things They Carried, the necessity of virility and will power to carry out the events is emphasized immensely and indicates that there was only room for “real” or “ideal” men; these ideal men are those who can withstand the struggles of life and continue to trudge on without being phased. The author, Tim O’Brien, constantly puts emphasis on the physical loads that all soldiers must carry through extensive lists of items; this suggests that soldiers needed not only strength, but also the will power to push on. For example, at the beginning of the excerpt, the author talks about the necessities the soldiers are bringing with them. He elaborates with a litany consisting of “P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water” (O’Brien 328). To go along with the burden that came with carrying everything, the soldiers also had the burden of carrying and dealing with past memories and emotions; soldiers were forced to push aside all sentimental feelings and focus on war related tasks. Although numerous thoughts and feeling raced through the minds of every Vietnam soldier, “[they] all [had to carry] the emotional baggage of men who might die”, meaning they had to hold back how they felt to insure success on the battlefield and increase the chances of survival (O’Brien 338). The soldiers all experienced these deep feelings of vulnerability and longing, but could not express themselves for the sake of their manhood. “They all carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run, freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down… They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing” (O’Brien 338). This fear of blushing drove the motivation that these soldiers had because cracking under the pressures of war indicated the incapacity to handle the responsibilities of a real or ideal man. Having the status of a real man was paramount not just in the militaristic society, but also in the minds of each individual soldier. In order to evade being ousted from the class of real men, the soldiers forced themselves to cope with their physical and emotional hardships in Vietnam and continue with their lives on the battlefield.

Mustering up the courage and will power to fight in the infamous Vietnam War was not only difficult, but also unwanted. Even the rough-riding, military-minded Chicano soldiers that fought for the US in the Vietnam War deemed the war and the efforts made unnecessary. For example, Raul Mosqueda, a Chicano soldier and Vietnam War veteran, admittedly asked himself “‘[was] I really gung ho about the service? No’” (Rosales). The participation in this war was met with disapproval from an array of people, even from those who loved war like the Chicano soldiers. In spite of the magnitude of this disapproval, the Vietnam War was still carried out and ultimately troubled many, especially the soldiers who fought in it. The setting of the Vietnam War, along with all the burdens that came with being a part of it, was an overwhelming event for every individual involved. But, despite all of that, soldiers still had to man up and fend off the impact of these hardships. “The brutality of this environment often required a stoic and martial demeanor, and each individual was forced to find inner strength and personal fortitude” and forced to behave in a masculine manner (Rosales). This masculine behavior was driven by the fear of being afraid to die and the fear of being afraid of war. “They were afraid of dying but they were more afraid to show it” (O’Brien 338). 

Through this fear, the soldiers showed their apparent masculinity through the superiority that they achieved and felt through brute force and strength. There were these men on the battlefield that had to appear rugged and tough despite what they were going through, simply, in order to achieve their objectives and maintain credible status in their infantry. The soldiers pushed all buttons and mustered up whatever it took to complete their assignments. The immense workloads and tasks that soldiers had to endure showed the strength and persistence of the culturally reified image of the ideal man.  The soldiers did this so frequently and so often that eventually they went overboard with some assignments, showing no mercy in whatever they did, or remorse for what went on in battle. “During the Vietnam War, after battlefield preparation with artillery or aerial bombardment, VC, PAVN, and US soldiers would engage the enemy in firefights with automatic weapons. No phalanxes were necessary, but squads of men attempted to kill the enemy and overrun his position” (Milam 135-36). It reached a point where the notion of maintaining a masculine image overtook the soldiers. In the excerpt, the soldiers were proceeding to do heinous things and appeared to feel nothing of their acts. For example, “When someone died, it wasn’t quite dying, because in a curious way it seemed scripted, and because they had their lines most memorized, irony mixed with tragedy, and because they called it by other names, as if to encyst and destroy the reality of death itself. They kicked corpses. They cut off thumbs. They talked grunt lingo” (O’Brien 338). The soldiers essentially played the part of the ideal man rather than actually embodying the character of this augmented, military masculinity; these soldiers pretended that their suffering did not affect them and blindly continued to follow the script of the war. Staying in character eventually overtook and consumed them to the point where maintaining this act or image was all that mattered.

The perceived rugged, soulless soldiers and their immoral acts almost exhaustively fill the collective memory of the Vietnam War. This account of what happened, however, does not encompass the entirety of the story of the Vietnam War; it exhibits the actions, but not the motives. Based on historical and cultural context, the Vietnam War and the soldiers who participated in it provoke the remembrance of an immense amount of atrocious, heinous and unjustifiable acts. Prior to heading into this text, most young readers have only a sanitized version of a chronological history of the Vietnam War. The historical context shapes the text through superficial facts that mislead the audience; this, consequently, forces the audience to develop a biased stance on the men who fought in the war and assume their intentions. The acts recorded about the Vietnam War and the soldiers were too heinous to be accepted at face value. However, the text morphs this perception of the war, as well as those soldiers who were in it. The text delves into the specifics of the experience and why things happened the way they did. The text serves as an explanation or justification for the events during the Vietnam War and the actions of the soldiers, giving evidence that these events and actions were driven by fear, not by some innate desire to perform heinous acts. The text elucidates that there was motivation for the soldiers to be a part of the Vietnam War and do what they did, and reveals the misconceptions of the events when they are just looked superficially. The motivation that the soldiers have to stay involved with the war in Vietnam is primarily driven by fear rather than the desire to serve and show supremacy. This fear stems from this displaced desire to fulfill the culturally constructed version of the ideal man and avoid staining one’s image and tarnishing his reputation as a man in the world.        
