| "Intellect had come up against emotion. My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame. Hot, stupid shame. I did not want people to think badly of me. Not my parents, not my brother and sister, not even the folks down at the Gobbler Cafe. I was ashamed of my conscience, ashamed to be doing the right thing." (The Things They Carried, p. 54-55). | Before they even arrived at the deep jungles of Vietnam, the soldiers fought a battle within themselves. They struggled because they were ashamed and embarrassed of not wanting to join the war efforts. They wrestled with their emotions, as opposed to logical reasoning. The soldiers went to war not because they had a reason to, but because they felt a sense of shame. |