In the book titled, The Things They Carried, the antecedent, Tim O? Brien, depicts a world where traumatic memories and suppression emotional baggage ar far heavier than whatsoever invade pack or assortment of weapons that has ever loaded d crack the destructionorse of a spend. The author, O?Brien, explores the personal and emotional saddles that the soldiers of the Vietnam War ? diminished? or nurse with them. The author portrays the things the soldiers restrain byout the myth as both liter solelyy tangible items and metaphoric each(prenominal)y intangible rundown burdens. The reader is able to learn a great need about the soldiers and their character by analyzing the things they contri preciselye during warfare. However, the story is non so much about the somatic things the men of important follow displace, only if rather the emotional burdens that ar non easily left(p) behind. The image of carrying is conveyed by dint of the lading of the strong- arm items the soldiers ? hunch overed?, and finished the metaphysical burdens of: escaping reality, fear, brokenheartedness, love, and the responsibility for one(a) another(prenominal). The bakers dozen troops of the important Company and their Lt. Jimmy cross ar portrayal of materialisation Ameri mass soldiers that bear the burden of the physical and metaphysical things they carry or ?hump? during the Vietnam War. And?among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 deal openers, pocket knives, mania tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cig atomic number 18ttes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, fasten kits, Military e actually last(predicate)owance Certificates, C rations, and two or ternary canteens of water? (OBrien 2). These items can recognize the soldiers pack weigh up to twenty pounds, on with other obligatory items for vindication. It was SOP, or metre operating procedure, for all soldiers to wear j ungle boots slowness 2.1 pounds, a steel he! lmet weighing 5 pounds, and a nylon covered hood weighing 6.7 pounds. In do-gooder to the fish of their huckster, they still had to occlude around guns, free ammunition, plus special supplies depending on their flowing mission. It is common for soldiers to carry up to half their pitch in what they consider necessary supplies. All of these items serve as vindication yet overly embody the cant over of what the soldiers physically had to hump in put in to survive. Along with the tip of the procedural items, every soldier carries his own personal items, which convey the image of carrying in a figurative perceive. The personal items the soldiers carry symbolize a means of skitter out from reality. For example: Henry Dobbins carries extra rations of peaches in corpulent syrup to eat with pound cake, which exemplify his escape stomach to his mothers kitchen. Ted lilac carries tranquilizers, and marijuana to escape the pain and accidental wound of the war. Michell Sande rs carries condoms as a symbol of sex in which he uses to escape the harsh realities and the fear of death. Norman Bowker carries a journal as his outlet to purge himself of the horror that surrounds him. Rat kiley escapes war through his imagi earth by carrying comic books. In order to escape the realities of war, he enters a fantasy nation that reminds him of his childhood back in America. Kiowa carries a Bible as a reminder of his faith, and is able to escape the horrors of war through spirituality. The author allows the reader to conceptualize the personal items the soldiers carry as a means of escape, but also as a false sense of vindication to cope with their fears of war. For example: Kiowa carries along with his Bible, moccasins for silence, as his personal illusion of safety. However, the moccasins get out not hold back his silence, but the noise incurred by all of his gear will. Dave Jensen carries opprobriousness vision vitamins which are high in beta-carotene. Agai n, the vitamins will not greatly improve his vision i! n the dark jungles of Vietnam. Yet, the vitamins are necessary because they offer Jensen a false sense of protection and an escape from fear. Lt. Cross carries a good fortune pebble addicted to him by Martha, his love back home. Jensen carries a rabbits foot, and Norman Bowker carries the divide thumb of a dead Vietcong. However, these items prove to be none other than the opposite of protection from safety, they offer protection from reality. figuratively speaking, the soldiers carry their personal items along with an armor of smoke. The weightiness of the things the soldiers carry only births heavier as the story progresses. The author offers a decent amount of detail for the reader to visualize the weight of the things the soldiers end up carrying throughout the whole war, both truthful(a)ly and figuratively. ?They carr[y] all the emotional baggage of men who might die.
Grief, terror, love, longing - these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight? (O?Brien 21). And with the addition of the burden of grief the soldiers feel, came responsibility. Lt. Cross best exemplifies a soldier that carries both the burden of grief and responsibility. Cross carries the biggest responsibility of the soldiers, which are the men in his platoon. However, his preoccupation with his love for Martha leads to the death of Ted Lavender, and hence Cross carries the burden and weight of grief due to his kick in out of responsibility. He was grieving for Ted Lavender, but mostly for Martha, and for himself, because she belong[s] to another wor ld...and because he [realizes] she [does] not love hi! m and never [will] (O?Brien 220). Cross? burden of grief from the loss of both Martha and Lavender, change his character for the better. Lavender?s death shows him the error in his ways, and that he cannot carry the weight of grief and guilt during a time of war along with carrying the responsibility for the lives of his men. With emphasis, the author symbolizes? Lt. Cross?s very parent. This allusion to the Bible, and to the literal image of the cross, represents the greatest burden that has ever been carried. Lt. Cross? name sake serves as an allegory to the Nazarene. Cross, as Christ did, moldiness carry the weight of all of his men upon his shoulders. He is trustworthy for the outcome of their lives. The weight of responsibility that Lt. Cross carries is one of the heaviest of burdens that the author expresses throughout the book. The Things They Carried is no other than a true war story, told by a Vietnam War veteran himself. kindred the Alpha Company, Tim O?Brien and all t he soldiers that served during the Vietnam War carried various items, whether it is was the weight of their equipment, or the burden of carrying their friend?s dead body. to each one soldier endured not only the weight of the physical items, but practise the mental and emotional weight the war added to them. The weight of the physical and metaphysical things the soldiers carried left them one hope, to shift the weight and make it bearable enough to survive. Works CitedO?Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York : Broadway Books, 1990. If you pauperism to get a full essay, order it on our website:
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