Figurative Luggage
It is normal to react abnormally to an abnormal situation. This is the primary theme of the “The Things They Carried.” Tim O’Brien created the protagonist, Jimmy Cross, to exemplify such a reaction. Cross makes “the things they carried” real and believable for the reader as well as creating an extended metaphor. O’Brien meant for him to represent all other men because, although each carries something different, all of the things symbolize something common. The story begins by describing the care with which Lieutenant Cross carries letters from a girl named Martha. O’Brien writes, “In the late afternoon, after a day’s march, he would dig his foxhole, wash his hands under a canteen, unwrap the letters, hold them with the tips of his fingers, and spend the last hour of light pretending.” O’Brien also mentions that Cross would “sometimes taste the envelope flaps, knowing her tongue had been there.” O’Brien assigns the most importance to Cross by opening the story with this aspect of his personal life. The author also brings the reader back to this place throughout the story to corroborate his importance and mirror the intensity of what the other men are going through. This introduction is so important because it develops the theme and allows O’Brien to build on the things men carry from one specific situation. These pervasive things that the men carry actually act as an extended metaphor. In difficult situations people turn to religion for he same reason these men turned to superstition and things. O’Brien says that these things were “largely determined by necessity.” This denotes that the things they carry are indispensable or an imperative requirement. In the context of the story necessity runs a gamut from marijuana and tranquilizers to photographs and a bible. Given the circumstances O’Brien never has to say what these things accomplish. Like religion, the things they carried comforted the men, lessened anxiety, and made them feel good.