Blog entry #1

“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.