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Meghan Posey

Professor Stalbird

ENG 1101.249

November 1, 2018

Literary Analysis

Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” presents a story about young soldiers dealing

with their hardships in the Vietnam War. The story describes the three major themes from the

story, which are weight, hope, and the emotions running through all of the characters minds,

these three themes show up multiple times throughout the story, leading up to the point of the

story where one of their own men dies.

O’Brien uses weight several times in the story. When he describes each individual soldier

in the story he describes everything the carry with them, all of their items they hold in their bags

which consists of personal items they chose to bring with them and the equipment they need for

war. “The weapon weighed 7.5 pounds unloaded, 8.2 pounds with its full 20-round magazine.

Depending on numerous factors, such as topography and psychology, the riflemen carried

anywhere from 12 to 20 magazines, usually in cloth bandoliers, adding on another 8.4 pounds at

minimum, 14 pounds at maximum”(4). This shows how everything is weighing them down, but

the one thing, which I believe is the most important and that is their emotions. There is no way to

measure feelings and thoughts, especially those of a young man fighting in a war where

everywhere you turn someone is dying. All of the men have a lot on their plate but they can’t slip

up and show emotions, they need to be on their guard at all times.

As I read this story I noticed hope, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross had a crush on a girl named

Martha from back home, even though as the story went on the crush had diminished. The way
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O’Brien described the thoughts going on throughout the Lieutenant’s mind about her, the way he

held onto her pictures and letters, made me think that the only thing keeping him going was

Martha. He had hope that he would one day make it back home to her she could be his girl, even

though she only thought of him as friend. “In his wallet, Lieutenant Cross carried two

photographs of Martha. The first was a Kodacolor snapshot signed Love, though he knew better.

She stood against a brick wall. Her eyes were gray and neutral, her lips slightly open as she

stared straight- on at the camera”(3). Just the fact that he had carried two pictures of her with all

times shows that he really wants her, and wants to make it home to her. Even if it’s hopeless it’s

important to have faith and hope about something.

Another theme that I noticed develop throughout the story was all of the emotions, or the

lack of, that was going on in each character's mind. I know that if I was a soldier in the war I

would be an emotional wreck, especially in such a taxing war like Vietnam. These men are

fighting for their lives and the lives of their friends, and that messes with their heads and eats

them alive because that’s all that they think about now, protecting each other is all that matters.

The men in the story keep to themselves and don’t let their emotions out, if I was in their shoes I

would probably just breakdown from being so mentally exhausted that I wouldn’t be able to

handle the stress anymore. When the most devastating thing happens to them, the death of one of

their own, they are all just emotionless and just keep moving along. No one stops, no one says

anything, it’s just normal to them. “They marched until dusk, then dug their holes, and that night

Kiowa kept explaining how you had to be there, how fast it was, how the poor guy just dropped

like so much concrete. Boom-down, he said. Like cement”(5). This just suggests that the men are

not only fighting for their lives, but they are fighting with their sanity. If I ever saw a person just
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drop dead right in front of my I would be so overwhelmed with emotion I what just have to react,

I would never think of it as someone dropping like concrete and moving on.

Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”, was a very enjoyable story for me, and I see

myself recommending this story to someone who is interested. At the beginning I thought this

was just gonna be another bloody, gory, war story, but it wasn’t. It really made me think of me

being in that war and how I would react, would I would do differently and what I would do the

same as the characters from the story. This story really kind of put the Vietnam War into

perspective for me, I was able to see a different side than what is usually talked about, and that’s

the men fighting. O’Brien wrote a great story and had a great message for me, the way he wrote

about the themes of weight, hope, and emotions really got to me. My brother recently signed up

for the Air Force and a very close friend of mine joined the Marines, so for me this story hits

home. I worry daily about what they will go through and experience in their time in the military

and this story opened my eyes to what soldiers go through in war time. I have hope for both of

them that everything they will go through is for a purpose and this will be for the best for their

lives, I feel like that’s all anyone could ever ask for, the well being of loved ones. I know that

both of them will go through multiple emotions and feel like at some point they won’t be able to

carry on anymore. At the end of the day all I want them to know is how much they are loved and

how much they got this, they are able to accomplish anything that they put their mind to and if

their really determined everything will they have worked for will come so easy to them.

Everyone should know how much they are loved and needed especially in times of doubt and

need.
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