Tim O'Brien's Captivating and Life-Changing Story The Things They Carried

One of the most overlooked aspects in the life of a soldier is the weight of the things they carry. In Tim O'Brien's story, "The Things They Carried," O'Brien details the plight of Vietnam soldiers along with how they shoulder the numerous burdens placed upon them. Literally, the heavy supplies weigh down each soldier -- but the physical load imposed on each soldier symbolizes the psychological baggage a soldier carries during war. Though O'Brien lists the things each soldier carries, the focal point centers around the leader, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, and his roles in the war. Lt. Cross has multiple burdens, but his emotional baggage is

The story focuses on the emotions of the soldiers and describes how they endured extreme emotional torture during their time at war. All of them taken away from their homes and being thrown into a terrorizing unfamiliar area then given a gun and being told to fight most of them being young and having no combat experience. Tim O’Brien explains the amount of emotional stress each man carried “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing-these were intangibles, but intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight” (89). He describes how their fear affected even what supplies they brought with them from the amount of ammunition, to pocket knives, and even food. One of the soldiers in the story, Ted Lavender carried tranquilizers with him because he was scared of the physical pain he might endure. “Depending on numerous factors, such as topography and psychology, the riflemen carried anywhere from 12 to 20 magazines” (82). All the men struggled through

The novel, The Things They Carried is a story of one man’s accounts resulting to his tour of duty in Vietnam. Many of the men that are discussed in the book continued to be effected by the war, long after they returned home. Men were left emotionally scared, even if they managed to get out of the war physically unharmed. The

First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries with him a pebble given to him by Martha, a girl with whom he is in love and wishes to be back home with, along with letters and

Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s panty-hose around his neck. Norman Bowker carried a thumb from a corpse that was given to him by Mitchell Sanders. Towards the end of the story Lieutenant Cross realizes he is not doing his job well if he is thinking about Martha. After Lavender is shot, Cross decides that he is going to straighten up and be the leader he should have been all along. Cross blames himself for Lavender’s death.” He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of war.”(O’Brien 101) Immediately, Cross has a talk about his new expectations.”Commencing immediately, he’d tell them, they would no longer abandon equipment along the route of march. They would police up their acts, they would get their shit together, and keep it together, and maintain it neatly and in a good working order.”(O’Brien 105) After Lavender is killed, Cross has the motivation to fulfill his role in war as the leader of the platoon.

Jimmy Cross, they met at a college in New Jersey but nothing sparked between them besides a friendship. There isn't any hope of them ever being together but Jimmy Cross still thinks about her constantly everyday. In one particular letter she sends him a good-luck-pebble. "Martha wrote that she had found the pebble on the Jersey shoreline and carried it in her breast pocket for several days" (8). Jimmy Cross reads the letter spends hours wondering who she was at the beach with, if she was with a man, if they were a couple. When the women sent letters home, it really helped keep the morale of the soldier's. Although Martha continues to kind of mislead Jimmy when she signs the letters "love." "Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open" (12).

“Grief, terror, love, longing- these were intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had a tangible weight.” (O’Brien 20) In the novel The Things They Carried, author Tim O’Brien relives his war experience in Vietnam through stories about himself and former platoon members. As the title suggests the items that each soldier carried reveals an insight into their mind and perspective on war. Through physical and mental items that he carried, there is a lot to be said about Mitchell Sanders, a member of

"The Things They Carried," is a story about drafted soldiers during the Vietnam era who were sent to the Vietnam War. The author, Tim O’Brien, describes the things that the men carry during their tour of duty. The items carried are both physical and impalpable items and what these things are is subject to the individual soldier. They carry the necessities for survival in the jungles of Vietnam as well as the personal things each soldier feels necessary to make life as comfortable as possible. Additionally, each of the men carries the memories and fears of past and present experiences. The heaviness of the impalpable items is as tangible as that of any physical item, and not so easy to cast away. The literary argument in which the novel

          Those in the Vietnam war had many burdens to carry, both physically and mentally. In the book The Things They Carried  some people could not handle these burdens, and others found ways to cope with them. Tim O’Brien, the author of the book , ended up finding his coping mechanism which was writing out stories. In his story he writes about not only his burdens, but the burdens of others that were in Alpha Company while in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien states that Rat Kiley

He had touched these items day by day, wondering who had been beside her while she had retrieved the pebble from the beach, or who placed the shadow in the photo of her. His mind would race day and night, making it difficult for him to provide adequate attention on the war. Cross “would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore; with Martha, carrying nothing” (396). Cross would hope for nothing more than to be carrying nothing. These physical objects weighed him down terribly after the death of Ted Lavender. He had loved Martha much more than his men, and due to his overpowering love he had lost one of them. The pebble was not only a symbol of importance to Cross as he dealt with the trauma of war, but as the physical weight he carried due to the death of his man. These physical symbols helped to identify a shift in the story when Cross decides to open up and make a change to the way he is coping with the war after Lavender’s death. This “wouldn’t help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on he would comport himself as an officer” (403).

This story also describes other people with what they pack in their bags and such. These items describe the lifestyle each person lives in or even outside of the war. For example, “Ted Lavender carried six or seven ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity” (355), which could explain that he is a drug addict and possibly a drug dealer. Another example is, “Dave Jensen carried three pairs of sox and a can of Dr. Scholl’s foot powder as a precaution against trench foot”(355), this describes Dave could be a health nut or someone that cares for his wellbeing more than his companions. The main character and narrator Jimmy Cross describes himself with the letters he saves in his sack from Martha,

But ironically, in this paragraph he also includes items such as Ted Lavender's "six or seven ounces of premium dope," Rat Kiley's comic books, and Kiowa's Bible and his distrust of the white man (2-3). This indicates the importance of these things to the men, no matter how ironic that may be, because obviously illicit drugs and comics are not necessary to the common man for physical survival purposes. But this irony suggests the desperation of the situation that the men faced, a situation that could place comics on the same level as food. Perhaps the emptiness that the men felt drove them to think that they had to carry all of these extra items to survive, because they filled the emotional void that was in their heads, created by the numbingly horrific violence of the war.

When men go off to fight a war, they often carry more emotional baggage than actual, physical baggage. “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing - these were the intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.” (page 20) The war messes with their heads, causes them to become paranoid, scared, and anxious all hours of the day and night. Ted Lavender, who was terrified of his own shadow in Vietnam,

Kiowa who was a devout Baptist carried an illustrated New Testament given to him by his father. Having this religious background, it allowed Kiowa a sort of comfort. With his and other religions, the thought of death is eased in near the same way by life after death. Another way Kiowa dealt with the war was through helping others get through their emotional stress. He especially helped O’Brien with his transitions of the war. Kiowa also brings along Native American things, such as his distrust for the white man, his grandfather’s hatchet, and a pair of moccasins that allowed him to walk silently during the needed times of war.

Martha is a flat and static character. She writes letters to Jimmy Cross but never mentions the war (O’Brien 427). She is safe in her own world (434). Jimmy Cross is round and dynamic. He has the most responsibility in “The Things They Carried.” He carries the lives of his men and his love for Martha (429). He changes when Lavender is killed. He decides that he will take responsibility for the death and tighten down the hatches to protect the rest of his men (436-437). Ted Lavender is a flat and static character. He lets his fear dictate what he carries and takes drugs to deal with those fears (428-429).