The Things They Carried: Analysis

The Things They Carried: Analysis

In “The Things They Carried”, O´Brien does an excellent job making the characters seem relatable and giving us a good idea of what they are going through. How by listing every object, thought, emotion, and even dirt the soldiers carried, we get a grasp of the struggles they had to deal with, even while marching instead of fighting. Thus, we come to understand that in the Vietnam War, soldiers didn´t just struggle in battle. Even while marching they always had to try and remain focused because every step they took could be the last as there were mines in the way that resulted in the deaths of many.

O´Brien gives us a huge list of the things they all carried while marching including guns, grenades, ammo, boots, sucks, bags, helmets, the Vietnam dirt, and individual personal items like a New Testament, pictures, M&M´s candy, vitamins, a slingshot, a yoyo, extra ammo, a pantyhose, etc. However, the emotions that they carried were sometimes heavier than the objects themselves as was the case with the Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who was in love with a college girl called Martha who mailed letters to him as a friend; he was obsessed with her but he was sure that she would never look at him as anything more than a friend and thus the heavy emotions that resulted from these feelings often distracted him and slowed him down much more than the guns and heavy equipment that he carried possibly could.

Lavender, another soldier who was known for being scared, carried paranoia and feelings of insecurity which led him to carry more ammo than usual as it gave him a feeling of safety, a common illusion that was also carried by other soldiers. Sometimes, they would take turns with a “28-pound mine detector” which was “often useless because of the shrapnel in the earth, but they carried it anyway, partly for safety, partly for the illusion of safety”. Proof of some safety precautions being nothing but an illusion was in fact Lavender´s death as he just dropped alongside his large amounts of extra ammo with one shot. Then again, these additional physical weights did help make his last few days less heavy as the emotional weight of fear would have been a lot heavier than the extra ammo. Although, his death added more emotional weight to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross as he felt responsible for his death due to his feelings for Martha distracting him from his duty which was to take care of his men.

It is all these mixed feelings and emotions in addition to the less heavy physical objects what makes the reading interesting and the characters relatable. The emotional weight helps us realize how hard it is to live every day in fear, worried that at any second your life could be gone, wondering if those that you love would even miss you, regretting decisions you should have taken at a given time like the Lieutenant Cross taking more risks with Martha when he had the chance. Many doubts and fears experienced every day in the minds of these soldiers, explained in detail by O´Brien who personally knew them and brings these experiences to our own minds through his unique writing style definitely makes his stories worth reading, and I look forward for more during the rest of this semester.