The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back

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The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back Jesse Spencer The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, a story about “necessities”, is an interesting read. The book talks about things from First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s perspective. Unrequited love (Martha), Jimmy’s troops, and equipment, are all brought up constantly throughout the story. The Story takes place throughout Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The story starts off with Jimmy carrying letters from a girl named Martha from New Jersey. Jimmy felt love for the girl. The letters are friendly in nature, but seem to be devoid of the emotion love as Jimmy so desires. Jimmy, on numerous occasions, looks at photographs of Martha and fantasizes about her. He remembers a date they went on where he had put a hand on her knee and pulled it away after he sees the look on her face. Numerous things of necessity are humped, or trekked, in. Necessity is whatever the soldier deems it to be. It might be a physical object or it might be emotions. Ted Lavender, who was shot in the head and killed, carried tranquilizers and dope. Jimmy carried a strobe light. Mitchel Sanders the Radiotelephone operator carried the radio. The medic, Rat Kiley, carried his satchel that contained medical equipment inside, including M&M’s. Henry Dobbins carried pantyhose from his girl back home…..Necessities. Jimmy is given a pebble from Martha. He relishes the pebble and wonders the hidden implications. He was doing this while one of his troops was clearing a fox hole. His mind was elsewhere. This is when Lavender was shot in the head and killed. Jimmy then took his regiment and marched on the nearby village and torched everything. He felt shame for this, for not doing his job. He felt that he had abandoned his troops. Jimmy burned the letters from Martha and vowed he would be a better leader. He would be a much more strict leader. He would

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