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his imagination and still survive it. "No more fantasies, he told himself. He would shut down daydreams" (24). His new found clarity provided the insight that strict discipline would increase their chances of survival. He banned vehicles of escape, like marijuana and his good luck pebble (25). However, highest on his list of banned routes to escapism, was love. Love for Martha had resulted in death. He could not risk fatality again by showing love to his men. "He would dispense with love; it was not now a factor" (26).

Escapism in war is a "catch-22." The soldiers in Vietnam felt that they could not survive the atrocities of war without somehow escaping it with their minds. They tried drugs, sex, food, love, and reminders of home, but chiefly, they abused imagination. Imagination took them away from the horror, and it brought them to a pleasant place of fantasy. Unfortunately, on the flip side of the escapism coin is the dangers of imagination. For the men in Vietnam, it was debilitating. They were not concentrating on their dangerous surroundings, and this was a significant cause of death. The only conclusion one may make is that escapism preserved the minds and hearts of the men, but it left their bodies completely vulnerable. The love letters and pound cake were a weight worth carrying because they made combat bearable, until the value of life was found to outweigh them.

Works Cited

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway, 1998.

Learn more about this author, Erin K. Wiedemer.
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