The Things They Carried and its Dual Meaning

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Recommended: Symbolism in the things they carried short story

At first glance of the title, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried looks as if it will be about the various amounts of material and equipment that is expected to be carried by soldiers as they carry out their various missions during wartime. O’Brien goes on to describe, in very minute detail, every little piece of equipment. Instead of listing off the weights and amounts of various military equipment, however, he begins with First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s letters from a girl named Martha. As the story progresses, more and more items are described, each with multiple meanings, both physical, and the emotional and mental escapes that they provide to each soldier. Just as the equipment and items carried has multiple meanings, so-too does the stories title. The Things They Carried is just as much about the physical properties of the soldier’s loads, as it is about the mental baggage, pains, and emotions each of them carries.
Lieutenant Cross’s letters serve as an escape from the rigors and stressors from the events that he must participate in. “He would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains…elusive on the matters of love” (178), shows Lt. Cross escaping, if only for a moment, and believing in something he knows not to be true, or even feasible. Something as seemingly innocent as letters from a friend offered Lt. Cross a moment out of his present setting. Although he knows that Martha is being innocent with her letters to him, he still removes himself from his present situation and lets his mind wander. After he realizes he is distracted, he returns to his present station, and goes about his military duties. Lt. Cross had found a way to remove himself and travel to a fantasy world, which I believe to be important fo...

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...the vast amounts of equipment that has to be carried, it doesn’t amount to the immeasurable weight that is carried on the inside. As O’Brien states “the things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do” (190), is what weighs the most. Physical loads will change constantly, depending on the mission or task as hand. It’s what’s carried in one’s mind that will never change. It is expected that Lt. Cross will continue to feel the weight of Lavender’s death for the rest of his time, and this is reminiscent of the mental fatigue and anguish that veterans sometimes face. Sometimes, the greatest burdens carried are within. And those loads only get heavier and heavier, sometimes with no relief in sight.

Works Cited

O'Brien, Tim. "The Things They Carried." ENGL 200: Composition and Literature. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 2011: pg. 178-190. Web. 19 April 2014

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