Things They Carried
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is essentially a harrowing collection of short stories. ... At its core though, The Things They Carried is about people, normal young men, thrown into a directionless conflict in which death is very real. ... He dedicated five years to The Things They Carried, more time he spent with his real comrades in Vietnam, and even dedicated to the book to his fictional characters. The stories in The Things They Carried hold a universal theme of Vietnam, and because they are not factually specific, can speak for a much larger group of veterans. The Things They Carried draws its title from the first story of the same name. “The Things They Carried” introduces the Alpha Company unit, a group of 17 soldiers venturing out in Vietnam under First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Every man in the unit carries things, both physical and emotional, that add to his weight. ... Depending on numerous factors, such as topography or psychology, riflemen carried anywhere between 12 to 20 magazines” (pg. ... They had standard-issue equipment, but they really carried whatever would work for them, “They carried whatever presented itself, or whatever seemed appropriate as a means of killing or staying alive. They carried catch-as-catch-can. ... They carried a crippling amount of supplies, from tarps, mine detectors, radios, insecticide, grenades, maintenance gear and imported black-market machine guns. “They carried like freight trains; they carried it on their backs and shoulders – and for all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry” (pg. ... But “The Things They Carried” doesn’t just detail the actual physical weights like some sort of inventory list. ... ‘The Things They Carried’ shows not the only the physical burdens on the young soldiers, but the emotional and psychological. ... The weight of Death is carried by all the Alpha Company. ... For example, one soldier, Norman Bowker, carried a blackened and rubbery thumb cut from a young VC (Viet Cong, the enemy guerilla force) that they found in a ditch. ... When Ted Lavender got shot in ‘They Things They Carried’, Kiowa recounted to the rest of the guys what it was like when to see him get shoot. ... The Things They Carried’s deaths are not heroic, and do not show valiance or bravery. ... “They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture. ... They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. ... These fears drove normal young man to do horrible things, but the fear of being afraid was not something that could be left behind in Vietnam. The hardest thing to carry was carried out of Vietnam. ... He thinks he might stop and shoot the breeze with her, but he realizes Sally represents things lost to Norman, normal things that he’s been separated from.