The Things They Carried--Tim O'Brien

             Lieutenant Jimmy Cross sticks out the most when I read “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. He is only twenty-four years old, too young to be in control of a troop. Instead of focusing on the war that is going on, he is fully occupied his mind with memories and imaginations of Martha, who is still a junior in college back in the United States. He cannot give his troop proper instructions because of his thoughts about Martha. As a result of that, Cross feels especially guilty about Lavender’s death because he thinks that is his fault.

            O’Brien repeats the phrase “the things they carried” numerous times throughout the short story. By using repetition, he demonstrates that soldiers have to carry not only the survival necessities but also weapons, and ammunitions. Carrying that much physical weights, walking through the forest is very tough. Besides those things, they also carry things that are of personal importance. For instance, Cross carries Martha’s photographs and letters; Lavender carries dope; Sanders carries condoms… Moreover, they each carry more than they bargain for. Cross carries “the responsibility for the lives of his men” because he is in charge. The rest carry “unweighed fear, the ghosts of the people who die because of them, and more importantly, their own lives. Through repetition, Tim O’Brien shows us that the things they carry are not only physical; the emotional burdens they carry through battles are truly “the things they carry.” The following is pretty much sum up the short story, “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing—these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight” (O’Brien 20). It is really sad what the US soldiers have to go through in the Vietnam war; not only they are so far away from home, they lack appropriate guidance to do their job properly and to survive.