Dissecting 'The Things They Carried': An Analysis

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The Importance of the Things They Carry.
College prep lit

The title of a book sets the stage of the story and proves to be one of the most important parts. In Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried it tells about exactly that it talks about all the things that soldiers carry with them and how it comes to affect them. Soldiers carry a huge variety of things many never think about being important and it affects each soldier in a different way. One of the most important things that all soldiers carry is relics from their past relationships. Two people from the story that are most affected by these relics are Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and Henry Dobbins. Cross seems to be the most affected by the pictures that were given to him from a girl …show more content…

Even though these such things are needed for essential survival soldiers still find a way to incorporate their own spin on them to make life better. Strunk, Kiowa, and Dobbins are great examples of mashing essentials with back home life. Strunk carries a slingshot, which allows him to always have a reliable weapon where he find ammunition practically anywhere. “Strunk carried his slingshot; ammo, he claimed, would never be a problem.” (Page 9). This is a very useful thing to have when you never know when you can be stuck without your service weapons. Kiowa carries a weapon that would be a hit or miss on usefulness. In jungle warfare with the distance between you and your enemy; your grandfather's hatchet is basically useless. On the other hand, if you are in some variety of close quarter combat, then the old trusty hatchet could prove to be one of the most useful tools carried. Weapons were not the only essentials that were carried to also bring comfort. Dobbins in particular carried canned peaches in a thick, delicious syrup. This kind of item brings a sweet down-home kind of comfort where the basic MRE would not. Many soldiers also carried things like Kool-aid to sweeten up their water and make it a little more

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