"The Things They Carried"

In "The Things They Carried", Tim O’ Brien explores the physical and emotional burdens that weighed on soldiers during the Vietnam War. The "things" the troops carry are both literal and figurative. Their physical load of weapons, ammunition, rations, and other supplies underscore their emotional load of terror, love, grief, and their desire to return home. Each character in O’Brien’s short story carries a different load specific to their role in the unit. Similar to their physical items, each character carries a different emotional burden specific to their outlook on the terrible events that surround their lives.

Jimmy Cross, the unit’s officer, is charged with the most responsibility and appears to suffer emotional burdens more than any of his other men. Although Cross may not carry as much physical load as the other enlisted men in his unit, he is responsible for his men’s lives. When Cross witnesses Lavender’s death, he bears the grief of the other members of the unit and feels as if he is responsible for his demise. The other enlisted men, too dumbfounded to mourn, do not experience the grief that Cross does. In response to losing one of his men, Cross feels as if he must become the best officer he can be and devote his life to his men. He then makes a symbolic personal sacrifice by burning the letters from his beloved Martha. By giving up Martha, he loses the escape he once had from the war around him. Since he believes her presence will no longer distract him, he can become closer to his men and protect them better. He is no longer absently obsessed with her trivial matters that he sees as a destructive force to his concentration to his unit. Lavender’s death, although un-preventable, leads Cross to become a different person for the rest of his time in Vietnam. He will no longer allow he and his men to take the war lightheartedly. The unit will no do everything by the book and according to military procedure. Cross no longer is devoted to focusing on matters at home, but rather on devoting all of his efforts on getting his men safely through the conflict.

Some of the things the men carry are universal, such as the two-pound poncho, magazines of ammunition, a primary weapon, and fear. All of the men carry the weight of fear, reputations, and death along with their standard gear. Although every member of the unit experiences fear at some point, every one of the soldiers knows that exhibiting fear will only reveal vulnerability. After a particularly bad firefight, "They would touch their bodies, feeling shame, then quickly hiding it. They would force themselves to stand. As if in slow motion, frame by frame…Scary stuff, one might say. But then someone else would grin…" (65) Although the men are all scared they try to hide their fear from each other. They all "carried the emotional baggage of men who might die. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects that was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required prefect balance and perfect posture" (76). All of the men have to find a way to dehumanize the whole situation in order to cope with the events that surround them. In the short story, the men encounter a VC corpse by the side of the road. One of the men, Sanders, reaches down, cuts a finger from the body, and puts in his pocket. Sanders then tries to tell the other men that there is some moral to the scene before them yet he is unable to explain it. The other troops curse Sanders and yet it does not seem to bother any of them what they had just seen. In order to continue on fighting and not lose your sanity, the soldiers must dehumanize the events around them.

Tim O’ Brien’s short story explores the hardships the troops endured during the war. Even more encumbering than their physical loads were the emotional wounds they suffered each day. All of the men over there could handle the physical demands the war required from them, but many of they could not handle the emotional drain that the war took from them. Even if the troops could hide their emotional pain while in battle and in Vietnam, once they returned home they were changed forever. The emotional wounds many of the troops faced in the war could not be repaired. Through Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his men, we can see how the terrible events the men suffered though changed their lives forever. (787)