The Things They Carried Reflection

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In “The Things they Carried,” Tim O’Brien writes about the feelings and experiences of young soldiers in the Vietnam War. O’Brien starts out with naming the different things that the men have brought along during the war. Most bring photographs, letters by loved ones, and other symbolic treasures. All of these things that the men carried along with them show their emotional burdens they are carrying as well. “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”(348). O’Brien shows us that the emotional burdens that the soldiers experience is far greater than the physical torture they must undergo to stay alive. The mental burden that carries the most weight on the hearts of the soldiers is terror. This came from many different things. The horrified young men are continuously troubled by the fear that they might die in the war. One of the men brings marijuana to calm his fear and nervousness of death throughout the war. Ted Lavenders death and the reaction of the soldiers illustrate its impact on the men. In the story, Lavenders death is portrayed as being “like a rock fall, or a big sandbag or something “. Throughout the story, Lavenders death is repeated many times to show recurrence in order to demonstrate the fear in the soldiers. The fear of death consistently goes throughout their head as they await their next moves. Another burden that is carried, especially by First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, is guilt. Lieutenant Cross knows that it was because of his carelessness, that Ted Lavender was dead. This is shown on page 346, when O’Brien writes, “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence, Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone
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