The Things They Carried

 In the chapter “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien is constantly repeating himself. Every time he repeats part of the story we find out a little more about what happened in that period of time during the war. In this chapter he seems very fixated on the weight of everything probably because the weight you carried affected the job they had to do and how much easier or harder the day and traveling would be for you. For example if you got stuck with the 26 pound PRC-25 radio, it would make traveling harder because you have more weighing you down. The more detail O’Brien gives the more we find out about everyone in his group. Such as Jimmy Cross and his love for Martha who weighed right over 117 pounds and wore a tweed skirt on their date. Another thing I noticed in O’Brien’s writing was that he didn’t let us find out in time that Ted Lavender was going to be killed. We are told on the third page that Lavender was going to be shot, which didn’t allow us to make a connection with the character, I just almost overlooked him when I read about him because I knew he was going to be gone soon. Maybe O’Brien was underplaying his death or maybe it was a hard memory for him and it’s just easier to overlook it. The paragraphs are very long. Usually paragraphs are shorter, breaking up the reading and allowing room to breath. But O’Brien seems to get on one topic and rant about it in a clear way. It’s harder to take a break from the book due to this because you become so engrossed in all the details he puts in about even little things such as what the men were carrying during the war.