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Masculinity In The Things They Carried

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In the passage from The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien qualifies the traditional ideas of masculinity. Initially, he supports traditional masculinity when he talks about how the people in his hometown will talk about "how the damned sissy had taken off for Canada.” (O’Brien 176). O’Brien is afraid of appearing weak and thus thinks he should not run off to Canada. He fears the town thinking of him as being any less of a man because he wouldn’t fight a war he didn’t believe in. O’Brien challenges masculinity when he thinks about whether or not going to the war is the best choice as he states that “what embaresses me much more, and always will, is the paralysis that took my heart. A moral freeze: I couldn’t decide. I couldn’t act.” (185). The

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