The Things They Carried

8 Pages 1880 Words

The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien

This story by Tim O’Brien takes you along with the soldiers of First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’ platoon as they “hump […] up the hills and through the swamps” (388) of the jungles in Vietnam. Each man carries the weapons of his trade and the equipment to do a soldier’s deed in war. “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 396). Their plight, common to most soldiers who have experienced combat, was to endure the daily stresses of combat and all its associated physical and mental fatigues culminating in a flight home on “[…] that big silver freedom bird […];” (O’Brien 397) if you happened to be one of the fortunate ones to make it through your tour without being killed.
Not so fortunate was Ted Lavender who is killed while the platoon was on a mission to “[…] search out and destroy the elaborate tunnel complexes in the Than Khe area south of Chu Lai” (O’Brien 391). Among the many things that the typical platoon leader carries: “[…] a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a .45-caliber pistol […]” (O’Brien 388), Lieutenant Cross carried the responsibility for Lavender’s death – an intangible and immeasurable weight. This would ultimately be the greatest burden that Lieutenant Cross would carry. Lieutenant Cross felt totally responsible for Lavender’s death and vowed “[…] to perform his duties firmly and without negligence” (O’Brien 398). By discarding the tangible items from his beloved Martha, including her letters and the two photographs, and finally, he would dispose of his good-luck pebble; this would remove some of the emotional burdens, as if to make room for the burden of Lavender’s death.
The Things They Carried captures the physical and emotion...