Love and Stockings

Love and Stockings

Chapters from The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Emily Townsend, Sean Lee, Ricardo

Bentin and Lola Sanchez-Carrion

Expands on Martha and what she represents to

Jimmy Cross.

Same stories and details mentioned at other points

in the book are repeated.

End of chapter:

• O'Brien mentions how he'd like to write a story about some of the things they talked about
• ambiguity at the end - referring to Martha or Lavender?
• questioning how reliable O'Brien is as a writer
• Did he really tell the story that Cross wanted him to tell?

• Relates to “The Things They Carried” by expanding on the use of some items for comfort or even for good luck charms

• With “Stockings,” O’Brien continues with the idea that that rationally thinking men can be made to think irrationally in order to preserve their well-being.

The end

Stockings

Henry Dobbins always carries around his girlfriend’s pantyhose as a good luck charm.

They had “saved” him from many dangerous events. After his girlfriend dumped him, he still believed in the good luck that they had.

Literary elements

Theme: finding comfort in simple objects

The stockings:

(pages 111-112)

"properties

of a good-luck charm"

"he liked the memories this

inspired"

Seen multiple times throughout the novel,

especially in "The Things They Carried"

"secure and peaceful"

"gave access to a spiritual world, where things were soft and intimate"

These objects remind soldiers of home, and

become so significant that soldiers feel

they are in greater danger without them --> SUPERSTITION

Such comparisons were made to the stockings to emphasize how significant they really were to the soldier, and how they made him feel safe

Literary Elements, cont.

Simile:

"Dobbins felt the pull of superstition, and he believed firmly and absolutely in the protective power of the stockings. They were like body armor, he thought.” (page 112)

Metaphor:

“...he sometimes slept with the stockings up against his face, the way and infant sleeps with a flannel blanket, secure and peaceful.” (page 111)

Emphasize the COMFORT and PROTECTION the stockings provide

• Directly stated in the chapter that Dobbins and his girlfriend break up
• He wears the stockings around his neck anways

LOVE

SUPERSTITION

to

From

They become less of an object of love, and more of an object of safety and security.

Love

Tim O’Brien and Jimmy Cross get together and relive war experiences through their stories.

Cross shares his love story with Martha with greater detail

Literary Elements

Point of View

Literary Elements, cont.

• From "I" to "he"
• "I" is used in the present day encounter
• He is used to describe Jimmy Cross's story

Jimmy Cross

Theme of "Love"

repetition (from novel):

Henry Dobbins and pantyhose,

Kiowa's moccasins and hunting hatchet.

Rat Kiley's comic book.

Ted Lavender's death

metafiction - talking about stories within the story

• title
• meaning of love is distorted for Jimmy Cross
• reference to letters from Martha
• comfort found in love for Martha
• endings aren't always as expected

st

Tone:

nostalgic:

“we talked about everything we had seen and done so long ago, all the things we still carried through our lives.” (page 26)

''old photographs'' (page 26) ---> taking time to look back on the past

haunted:

"It was something that would never go away, he said quietly, and I nodded and told him I felt the same about certain things. Then for a long time neither of us could think of much to say." (page 26)

• provides insight on Jimmy Cross

• personal encounter without being too personal

• makes the narrative all the more powerful because he was actually there

• emphasize how vivid everything from the war was
• these details seem insignificant
• war leaves such a strong impact you remember the smallest of details, and it is hard to explain why

• personal encounter
• author is involved