“The Things They Carried” written
by Tim O’Brien entails the journey of soldiers who were marching through
Vietnam. O’Brien discusses and goes into great detail about what the soldiers
carried with them. He describes the actual things they carried with them, and
also describes the emotions that they felt and carried with them as well. “The
things they carried were largely determined by necessity… P-38 can openers,
pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing
gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets… and two or three canteens of water…
Together these items weighed between 15 and 20 pounds”.(97) One thing I noticed
as I was reading is O’Brien seems to most always put the weight of all the
items they carried, “As an RTO, Mitchell Sanders carried the pRC-25 radio, a killer,
26 pounds with its battery… As a medic, Rat Kiley carried a canvas satchel
filled with morphine and plasma and malaria tablets… for a total weight of 20
pounds. ”. (98) I believe he did that to show the sense of baggage it had on
them and how it weighed on the soldiers to carry all those things.
Not only did the soldiers have to
carry all the physical weight on themselves but, they also had to carry all the
emotional weight that weighed heavy on them, it probably weighed more than the actual
physical weight itself, it weighed heavy on their minds and hard on the heart.
The emotional weight affected the soldiers to lose focus on what they were
doing and to lose focus on their missions. One of the soldiers that carried a
lot of emotional weight was First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, he carried a lot of emotional
weight from the girl he loved Martha, he knew that she did not love him and it
weighed heavy on his heart. He wondered why she did not love him, and he wondered
and worried so much it ended up getting one of his soldiers killed because he
was not looking out for him. “Lieutenant Cross gazed at the tunnel. But he was
not there. He was buried with Martha under the white sand at the Jersey Shore…
He was just a kid at war, in love.” (101)
The men all carried things that
were most important to them, “Lee Strunk carried his slingshot; ammo… Rat Kiley
carried brandy and M&M’s… but they all carried ghosts”. (100) All the men
carried a burden on themselves. “The things they carried were determined to
some extent by superstition. Liutenant Cross carried the good-luck pebble. Dave
Jensen carried a rabbits foot. Norman Bowker, otherwise a very gentle person,
carried a thumb that had been presented to him…” The men carried these items I believe
to experience a feeling of sense of comfort, it made them feel a little at ease
to have something to always hold on to. Lieutenant Cross carried on to the pebble
that Martha gave to him, because it gave him a sense of comfort knowing that
the pebble was from her.
