Minor Characters Driving Major Change in O'Brien and O'Connor

Introduction: The Role of Minor Characters

The most memorable parts of a story can be many different things: point of view, characters, setting, symbolism, or theme. All of these elements together play a critical role in the overall success of a story. The characters present within an imaginary world play the most critical part, as they are the ones navigating that fictional reality. Their humanity connects to the reader's humanity. Main characters can have a large presence in a story, but it is equally notable that minor characters often have a powerful impact on major ones.

The relationship between characters in The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien and "Everything That Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O'Connor demonstrates the profound influence that minor characters can have. Most notably, in both stories, the deaths of minor characters force the major characters to undergo significant change or transformation. Ted Lavender helps Jimmy in "The Things They Carried," and Julian's mother helps Julian in "Everything That Rises Must Converge," through their deaths: each death forces Jimmy and Julian to build more realistic beliefs and better face reality—though Jimmy does this in a faster and clearer way than Julian.

Character Identification and Qualification

Jimmy and Ted Lavender are the most important characters in "The Things They Carried," while Julian and his mother are the most important characters in "Everything That Rises Must Converge." According to Norton, a few pieces of evidence must be present for a person in a story to qualify as a character. The character's name, appearance, actions, thoughts, and the narrator's comments on the character must all be mentioned in the story. Therefore, we can conclude that Jimmy, Ted Lavender, Julian, and his mother are all technically defined as characters, because we know their names, appearances, actions, and thoughts.

Jimmy Cross, Ted Lavender, and the Break from Fantasy

Jimmy has an imaginary relationship with Martha, but it is only the death of Ted Lavender that forces him to get in better touch with reality. Set during the Vietnam War, The Things They Carried highlights the contrast between what the soldiers carried physically and what they carried in their minds and hearts. The main character, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, is deeply in love with Martha, a woman back home in America. She writes to him, but she is not in love with him and clearly does not express any romantic feelings toward him. When Jimmy is away at war, thinking of Martha serves as a form of escapism; he engages in fantasies that she loves him in return. To sustain this fantasy, Jimmy carries a "good-luck charm from Martha" in order to feel closer to this imagining. In contrast, he also carries the weapons belonging to a very real and very dangerous world.

One day, outside of Than Khe, Ted Lavender—a minor character who lives in constant fear of the dangers around him—is shot and killed. When that happens, Jimmy finally recognizes where he is, who he is, and the fact that Martha does not love him. He is forcibly brought into contact with reality. As a character, Ted Lavender is largely defined by his fear of the war, and his sudden death is the catalyst that strips Jimmy of his comforting illusions.

Julian, His Mother, and the Illusion of Non-Racism

Julian, who lies to himself about his beliefs on race and racism, only begins to recognize the true nature of his prejudice after his mother dies. In Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge," the main character Julian initially appears to be a levelheaded person free of racist or discriminatory tendencies. However, the reader soon realizes that he is an imbalanced person who only wishes to avoid appearing racist, largely to distinguish himself from his mother—an elderly, white, openly racist woman who functions as a minor character in the story.

Even though Julian does not consider himself to be racist, he thinks that he "might make friends with some… Negro professor or lawyer." This reveals that he is still a very close-minded person who does not view Black people as autonomous individuals. One day, while Julian and his mother are riding a bus, he argues with her about her racist ideologies. His mother firmly believes that her son, as a white man, is above all Black people. When a Black woman and her son board the bus, Julian's mother attempts to give the child a penny—a clearly condescending gesture. This angers the Black boy's mother, who strikes Julian's mom. By the end of the story, Julian's mother's face is "fiercely distorted," and she dies. At this point, readers can infer that Julian is going to transform into a more realistic, less self-deluding person, and that he will be thrust into "the world of guilt and sorrow."