The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Civil War global Sherman once said, War is hell. He was right. In the short stage The Things They Carried, Tim OBrien poses us the hell that our soldiers suffered. The narrator shows us a captivating, and up-close story or so our soldiers in the Vietnam War. While the title relates to the story about things carried, hardly the soldiers pay to a broader extent than just the animal(prenominal) burdens-in many cases, they are weighed down by ruttish baggage. The emotional baggage that lies heavy in their hearts outweighs the physical weight. In addition to the items that they must carry, they also carry personal me handstos.To show how much the soldiers are carrying the narrator tells us things carried were largely determined by necessity. Some of the necessities included, P-38 can opener, pocket knivescandy, cigarettesC rations and two or collar canteen of water. Together, these items weighed between fifteen and twenty pounds The narrator goes on to break off us scour mor e detail about the things the soldiers carried . carried the standard M-16 gas-operated violation rifle. The weapon weighed 7. 5 pounds unloaded, 8. 2 pounds with its full twenty-round magazine. grenade launcher, 5. pounds unloaded By telling us exactly what the men carried and how much it weighed, it gives us an cleverness on the physical burdens that the men had to carry. The narrator tells us that the intangible items that these men carried proved heavier than any backpack and gun. The main character in the story is Lieutenant Cross, platoon leader. He is in love with a young female child in the United States.She is always on his mind and because he allows his thoughts to make up him away and be with her. Because of this, he blames himself for the death of another platoon member even though in that location was nothing he could have done to treasure him. Lieutenant Cross felt the pain. He blamed himself. He visualized Marthas smooth young face, reckoning he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he love her so much and could not stop thinking about her. I think here he is macrocosm a little unreasonable. His love for her didnt kill Lavender. He didnt feel only the burden of being responsible for Lavenders death, it was the burden of being alive. They all carried great emotional weight. They carried all the emotional baggage of the men who might die.Grief, terror, love, longing-these were the intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. With all the physical and emotional things they carried, they also carried things that were close to their hearts. They carried mementos and other small weapons. Mitchell Sanders carried brass knuckles. Kiowa carried his grandfathers feathered tomahawk. Kiowa always took along his New TestamentLee Strunk carried his slingshot ammo, he claimed, would never be a problem. Were told that Lieutenant Cross carried ea rn from Martha in his rucksack, and pictures of her in his wallet and a pebble. Lieutenant Cross certain a good-luck charm from Martha. It was a simple pebble, an ounce at most. These things, although that was something else they carried, I feel like that, these items are things that made them feel like there was a world outside the war. They carried a silent awe of the military group of the weapons, which kept them alive by killing the enemy. They carried infection, the weak or wounded, the thumbs of dispatch Viet Cong, guilt, and the soil of Vietnam itself. Perhaps the only certainty of a rather enigmatic war was that there would never be a shortage of things to carry.