Tim O'Brien's Captivating and Life-Changing Story The Things They Carried

“The Things They Carried” is a short verisimilitude story. It was written by Tim O’Brien, who is a Vietnam veteran. He never dreamed it would have been such a captivating and life changing story that it has become. Tim O’Brien introduces us to life during the Vietnam War. He captures the feelings of each soldier as they were in the battle field. We are involved in their dreams, fears, and the ghosts that haunted them. These were some of the things they carried.

“First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha” (O'Brien, 1990). This is how we are introduced to Cross. He is a young soldier that is responsible for his platoon. He is only 22 years old. He carries his love for a young lady by the name of Martha. He also carries letters and photographs of her. He carries his dreams of her love. He and the others carried their necessities such as “P-38 can opener, pocket knife, heat tabs, wrist watch, dog tags, mosquito repellant, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water” (O'Brien, 1990). Cross also carried the guilt of Ted Lavenders death. “As first lieutenant and platoon leader, Jimmy Cross carried a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a .45 caliber pistol that weighted 2.9 pounds fully loaded” (O'Brien, 1990). He received a pebble from Martha that he carried for luck. We are given different weights of each of the items, but the heaviest burden was his guilt from Ted Lavender getting killed. The burden got so heavy that he had to unload the weight of his dreams of Martha. He burned the letters and photographs.

Henry Dobbins was the machine gunner and carried the M-60 al...

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... wanted to talk about Ted Lavender’s death, but no one would listen. He also would have to carry the burden of being the minority in the platoon. He also carried a ghost.

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED (Summary and Response) 3

We are able to see what each soldiers’ burdens are. We can feel what they are feeling and imagine what they are thinking as they are fighting a political war. We feel the sorrow that they trusted their lives with the United States Government, when the United States Government was using the war for political purposes. We can see the affect that Ted Lavender’s death had on each of them. We can see the fear and hurt that they are going through. We watch them grow up as soldiers and loss some burdens while they are gaining new ones.

Bibliography

O'Brien, T. (1990). The Things They Carried. In T. O'Brien, The Things They Carried. Houghton Mifflin.