The things they carried - Essay Example

The author, as a central character, is a veteran from Vietnam War. The major part of the book is concerned with the author trying to recall form the past some memorable events. The story presents a bunch of soldiers Rat Kiley, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, Mitchell Sanders, Kiowa, Ted Lavender, Norman Bowker, and others. Ted Lavendar is shown to die almost at the start of the story. The author is part of the army that carried several things from guns, grenades, lice and emotions of fear, guilt, dreams, love and hate.

The things were closely related to family and jobs but indirectly through amalgam of emotions. In the beginning, the soldiers carried guns and grenades during Vietnam War to have strong armed combination of troops. The most valuable thing they carried was love which made them realize that wars only create massive destruction and love is the only ultimate binding between life and happiness. The novel depicts the fear of death and losing your loved ones carried by soldiers who feel guilty for not being able to save people close to their heart.

Soldiers also carried dreams along with them to savor their dear ones and to be able to live with them yet again. The author has mentioned a number of things that were carried by soldiers before leaving for war. The author highlights the metaphoric value of things that were carried by soldiers; Jimmy Cross carried a pebble which was given to him by Martha and that too under his tongue. The purpose described by the author is that it provides relief by allowing him to get distracted from his duties as a soldier.

Martha's opinion is that the pebble was picked up from a shore which is a place where things converge or diverge; so the pebble reflects her emotions towards Jimmy. Soldiers carried a lot of weaponry with them; mostly depending upon their level of fear of the war. O'Brien repeatedly mentions the weight of the weapons; "The weapon weighed 7.5 pounds unloaded, 8.2 pounds with its full 20 round magazine. The riflemen carried anywhere from 12 to 20 magazines.adding on another 8.4 pounds at minimum, 14 pounds at maximum".

It appears that the writer is very well aware of the burden that these soldiers were carrying. This burden is not only in the physical form, but also in terms of the worry that had about their homes and families they were leaving behind. Moreover, the burden of keeping their homes safe from the enemy demands special attention. Phrases like "..they carried gravity" are clearly a reflection that the life of soldiers is not easy and they have to carry a variety of burdens and only one of them is the physical burden, the remaining are mental burdens in nature.

The writer seems very concerned about the mental burdens since they are not tangible and there is no way a soldier can get rid of them. Rat Kiley carried morphine whereas Henry Dobbins carried huge weapon. It appears that writer intends to highlight how different departments of the army are closely related yet segregated according to their duties. The one who is carrying morphine is aware of the puzzle that he is about to solve when trying to provide relief to the injured patients. His concern is the management of pain; and he seems truly aware that the pain of combat injury is grave enough to be relieved only by high potency pain-killers like morphine.

On the contrary, the huge man Henry is worried about the challenges that he is about to face during combat situations. His willingness to carry the huge weapon despite its weight is truly reflective of his worry. Both