The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien

In retrospect chapter one demonstrates how Tim O’Brien and the other soldiers were influenced by the Vietnam War, many of the soldiers had to face the burdens of war, the lost of innocents and the sexual yearning for women. One of the fundamental themes introduced in the first few pages of the novel was the burdens many of soldiers encounter during the war. The soldiers in the novel carried some remarkably heavy physical and emotional burdens; these burdens almost always seem too much for them to carry. For instances Jimmy Cross the leader of the platoon was responsible for the lives of all soldiers in subdivision, however he was unable to keeping his soldiers alive. Another theme introduces in chapter one is the lost of innocent. The Vietnam War both defiles and terminates the innocence of those soldiers who participated in the war. Most of the soldiers in Vietnam War were young, not even twenty. Nevertheless, Tim O’Brien relentless points out that although they are young, they are killers when commanded. Many of the soldiers had to give up their innocence and become men immediately during the war. Other themes that emerge in chapter one is the sexual yarning for females. In addition with fighting Vietcong, soldiers had to endure living without any females around; which cause a lot of anxiety on them.

In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien’s opening chapter describes a group of soldiers marching through the jungles of Vietnam. Subsequently, Tim O’Brien started revealing personal items each soldiers carries with them during the war. These soldiers carry some surprisingly heavy physical and emotional burdens thought the jungles of Vietnam. However, these emotional burdens are far heavier than anything ...

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...are killers.” (O’Brien 1.37) These men kill on command; most of the soldiers just accepted everything they do during the war as their job. In the beginning of the chapter one Jimmy Cross was only twenty four year old and was the leader of his own platoon. He was still an innocent person, that all when Ted Lavender was executed in front of his eyes. Jimmy Cross had to give up his youth and start thinking like a soldier. When he burns the picture of Martha he symbolically lost his innocent. He had to give up his youth and start seeing the world in a different view. The unmistakable loss of innocence in the novel was the story "The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong", in which Mark Fossie girlfriend came from America to Vietnam only to become intoxicated with Vietnam and become a killer. Vietnam War materialize the changed of people and make them merciless and brutal.