The fear of warThe Roman philosopher and playwright Seneca the Younger expresses "Worse than war is the fear of war" (...) Seneca the Younger describes the physical and emotional attributes that coincide with the war. It also states that emotional or psychological burdens far outweigh those of a physical nature. Over the centuries, far from Roman influence, this philosophy remains true to modern times. "The Things They Carried," written by a Vietnam veteran named Tim O'Brien, expresses the concept of the mental agonies of war, particularly the Vietnam War, through the eyes of an Army unit led by a young lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Tim O'Brien argues that the themes of fear, desire, responsibility and uncertainty on the Cross fear death and the agony of seeing death around them. One of the men under Cross' command is “Ted Lavender, who was scared. . . until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April” (1249). Ted Lavender's death causes everyone in Lieutenant Cross's unit, or platoon, to fear dying in combat, adding more weight to the burden of fear. The weight of her death is repeated several times in the story and one soldier, Kiowa, repeatedly expresses Lavender's death as “Boom-down. . .Like concrete. . . Nothing else” (1251), as if Ted Lavender fell like a massive, heavy stone piercing the Earth. This repetition makes clear the fear everyone feels due to his death, and the scene constantly replays in their minds: “Yet when [Kiowa] closed his eyes, all he could think was Boom-down. . .” (1256). The men can only think of Lavender's death, as each anxiously awaits their fate. This entrapping thought of fate, in their minds, serves as the emotional pain that soldiers must contain during the war. These young warriors "also carried the soldier's greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing" (1258). These young people have a strong need to defend their reputation, because during war, safeguarding a soldier's reputation is the greatest fear one has. The fear of being a coward in war, or dying because of the hope and feeling of returning home. Within the story, a plane flies over Cross and everyone creating a bubbly feeling, a feeling of freedom and uplifting hope. The plane creates the elevation of freedom as “they [the soldiers] felt the rush of taking off. . . a smiling hostess. . . more than a plane it was a real bird, a big shiny silver bird, with feathers and claws” (1258). The plane connotes an escape from the emotional, but also mental, pain of war. The soldiers “dreamed of birds of liberty” and “the burdens [rolled] away” causing “there to be nothing to bear” (1258). Unfortunately, one of the many mental and emotional tragedies of the war is that most of the men under Cross' command, including Cross himself, will bear the pain and burden of the traumatizing war in Vietnam for the rest of their lives. “It was very sad. . . The things that men carried inside”