{"id":5161,"date":"2019-12-16T03:24:16","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T07:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=5161"},"modified":"2022-12-04T16:21:31","modified_gmt":"2022-12-04T20:21:31","slug":"mitchell-sanders-the-things-they-carried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mitchell-sanders-the-things-they-carried\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitchell Sanders\u2014The Things They Carried: Character Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Who is Mitchell Sanders in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em>? What are the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/defining-moments-in-life\/\">defining moments<\/a> for his character?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mitchell Sanders is a soldier in Alpha Company, a unit of the U.S. Army in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/tim-obrien-vietnam\/\">Vietnam War<\/a>, in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em>. Sanders tells the book&#8217;s narrator stories that prompt the narrator to reflect on the fine line between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/truth-in-fiction\/\">truth and fiction<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ll cover the most important scenes involving Mitchell Sanders in <em>The Things They Carried.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-mitchell-sanders-in-the-things-they-carried\">Mitchell Sanders in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The primary role of Mitchell Sanders in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em> is that of storyteller. He tells a few stories that represent the themes of <em>The Things They Carried<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-mitchell-sanders-s-story-music-in-the-mountains\">Mitchell Sanders&#8217;s Story: <strong>Music in the Mountains<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>O\u2019Brien remembers <em>another <\/em>story he heard, this one from Mitchell Sanders, about a six-man patrol that was sent up into the mountains to listen for enemy movement.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: It\u2019s significant that O\u2019Brien hears these stories secondhand, rather than experiencing them himself. It speaks to the unreliability of narrative and the blending of fact and fiction that defines so much of <em>The Things They Carried<\/em>. These stories may not be true in an empirical sense\u2014they\u2019re often fantastical and surreal\u2014but they accurately illustrate the emotional turbulence and mind-bending experience of actually <em>being <\/em>in Vietnam, so in that sense they <em>are <\/em>true and worthy of retelling.)<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>The Things They Carried<\/em>, Mitchell Sanders describes <strong>the fear and isolation the men experienced at this remote listening post in the mountains, surrounded by dark<\/strong>. The experience blurred the line between reality and fantasy for the patrol, as the men began to see and hear things in the darkness that they logically <em>knew <\/em>couldn\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t be out there. At first, they heard strange and ethereal Vietnamese music playing, seeming to emanate from the jungle itself. Some of them were driven to near-madness by the music they heard, but were unable to do anything to shut it out.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eventually, Mitchell Sanders in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em> says they began hearing what sounded like a cocktail party out in the jungle, complete with glasses clinking, conversation, and orchestral music. They called in an air strike to drown out the haunting and nonstop noise. The Air Force napalmed the mountain\u2014it was only <em>then <\/em>that the music finally stopped. The men were reprimanded for calling in an air strike against what appeared to have been an uninhabited mountain, but to them, the noise was all too real.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>O\u2019Brien rates this story of Mitchell Sanders in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em> as true, <strong>even if it can\u2019t be believed and may never have \u201chappened.\u201d<\/strong> It is true because it reveals to the listener the fear, isolation, and paranoia that defined the Vietnam War experience for so many young men. O\u2019Brien can relate to the story of a collective psychotic break on the part of this patrol unit, because<strong> he knows all too well what being alone in the dark jungle does to the human mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-mitchel-sanders-s-blame\">Mitchel Sanders&#8217;s <strong>Blame<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>O\u2019Brien feels that <em>he <\/em>was responsible for soldier Kiowa&#8217;s death. Right before the attack, O\u2019Brien and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/kiowa-the-things-they-carried\/\">Kiowa<\/a> had been talking together in the field, sharing stories from back home. The light from the flashlight gave away the company\u2019s position to the enemy, causing the firefight which led to Kiowa\u2019s death.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next day, the men begin the mournful search for Kiowa\u2019s body in the sewage field. Their boots sink into the filth as they wade through, trying to cover as much ground as they can.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Later, they find Kiowa\u2019s submerged body, which requires several men to dig out from the muck. Finding the body causes the men to reflect on<strong> the random nature of life and death in Vietnam<\/strong>. After finding the pack, Mitchell Sanders in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em> becomes enraged at what he perceives as Lieutenant Cross\u2019 incompetent decision to encamp the company in a sewage field, arguing that he ought to have exercised better field discretion and found a safer place for his men to spend the night.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Cross, meanwhile, is stricken with guilt at losing <em>another <\/em>man under his command<\/strong>. He knows that he ignored the warnings from the villagers (and from Mitchell Sanders) to avoid that field. It is <em>his <\/em>mistake, he believes, that killed Kiowa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cross observes to himself that a death always leads to an assessment of responsibility, a search for who or what is to blame. In the field, the larger sociopolitical or theological context doesn\u2019t matter: a single stupid decision (like Cross camping in the sewage field or O\u2019Brien switching on his flashlight) could lead to a man getting killed. <strong>Kiowa\u2019s death is simultaneously <em>no one\u2019s fault<\/em> and <em>everyone\u2019s<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who is Mitchell Sanders in The Things They Carried? What are the defining moments for his character? Mitchell Sanders is a soldier in Alpha Company, a unit of the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War, in The Things They Carried. Sanders tells the book&#8217;s narrator stories that prompt the narrator to reflect on the fine line between truth and fiction. We&#8217;ll cover the most important scenes involving Mitchell Sanders in The Things They Carried.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-5161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-things-they-carried","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mitchell Sanders\u2014The Things They Carried: Character Analysis - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mitchell Sanders (The Things They Carried) is a U.S. soldier in the Vietnam War. 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