The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Literary Analysis

“The Things They Carried” Essay At war, the battlefield is a dangerous place, a place where blood is stained red. It is where men and women carry physical as well as emotional loads such as grief, love, terror, longing and etc. In “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, the American novelist tells his readers about the transformations of Lieutenant Cross. At the beginning of the story, Cross was on the battlefield of the Vietnam War with his comrades. While he is there, Cross keeps thinking of Martha as a distraction from the war.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a short story that discusses burden, love, and sacrifice. The story is narrated by O’Brien and it relays his experiences and actual battles he was involved in when he had served time in the Vietnam War. He uses strong emotional appeal to show the readers how awful and gruesome the war was. He mentions a lot about carrying weight both physically and emotionally by stating many things that relate such as “They shared the weight of memory” and “They carried each other, the wounded or the weak. They carried infections.”

Everyone goes through struggles in their life. Whether it’s being a part of a dysfunctional family or witnessing the terrors of war, people all live through a time in their life when they find themselves surrounded by unpleasant circumstances. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien shares the stories of soldiers in the Vietnam War and the mountains they faced. No matter what war someone fought in, or what kind of soldier they were, everyone carried something. The idea of “carrying baggage” is a way to show each soldier’s internal problems and real-life giants.

At its heart, Julie Otsuka’s novel When the Emperor was Divine revolves around journeys. Otsuka blends the journeys of many Japanese Americans into one, concise story. To make the protagonist family more relatable, Otsuka never names the family as a whole, or the individuals that it is comprised of. This has the effect that Otsuka’s story could apply to a large amount of families during WWII. The casual reader may never go deeper than acknowledging that the internment camp is really a prison.

For example, O’Brien describes the physical weight of the items soldiers carry, such as guns, ammunition, and grenades. However, he also describes the emotional weight of the war, writing, “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing – these were intangible yet had their own mass and specific gravity” (O’Brien 21). This quote illustrates how the soldiers, not only carry physical objects, but also the emotional weight of their experiences in the war. Furthermore, this story depicts “the weight of burdens that press on soldiers in the field and how they handle those burdens” (Farrell).

The Weight In the short story, “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien talks about the weight soldiers carry in war. This particular war that Tim O’Brien was a part of is the Vietnam war. The soldiers in Vietnam have not only their gear to carry but they also carry the weight of the world in their hearts. Tim O’Brien uses symbolism, figurative language, and imagery to tell us of none other than pure hell.

A Thousand Pounds of Burdens A soldier must carry a multitude of equipment: rifle, knife, helmet, body armor, grenades, and many more. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien begins with a litany of the physical gear soldiers in Vietnam carry; with each listed item, the total weight of a soldier’s equipment slowly grows into a massive number. Assumably, the equipment would prove to be a soldier’s largest burden in the battlefield. Although soldiers in Vietnam certainly carry backbreaking amounts of equipment, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, Rat Kiley, and Norman Bowker manifest the weight of intangibles -fear, grief, and longing- and how these emotional and psychological burdens far outweigh their physical gear, tormenting them during and even after

A burden, by definition, is a heavy load that is often difficult to carry. War, both for a country and an individual, is one of the headiest burdens to be shouldered with. War forces change in men both physically, emotionally, and mentally. In the short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien the tough weight the infantrymen must carry is both physical and emotional.

Physical articles such as guns, ammunition, food, and water, are carried to survive and keep the soldiers healthy, whereas intangible ideas are brought along with the soldiers to maintain a healthy mentality. For example, “they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb” (Back Cover). This quote explains an elusive idea of what the soldiers carried with them. Soldiers being forced to fight in the war do not go home unharmed emotionally, even if they were not physically injured. Each soldier goes home carrying feelings of guilt, confusion, and “unrelenting images,” while each soldier still fighting in the war carries their love, passion, and perseverance.

However, the idea of carrying extends beyond physical objects. The soldiers also carry emotional and psychological burdens, such as fear, guilt, and trauma. These burdens are often heavier than the physical objects they carry, and they can have a profound impact on the soldiers'

The irony in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is crucial to understanding that the mental burden the soldiers carry are heavier than their physical burdens. Each soldier is required to carry their entire lives on their back throughout their tour in Vietnam. The soldiers carried not only weapons and the means of survival, but individual objects that are unique to them. While the individuality of the tangible objects that each soldier carried is supposed to keep them sane, it is these very objects that provides an even heavier mental burden of guilt and pain that eventually drove them to insanity.

The author was writing the story “The Things They Carried” expressed so many thoughts and feelings about what the soldiers had faced, they showed their feelings and duties, life or death, and overall fear and dedication. This story shows the theme of the physical and emotional burdens that everyone is going through in the war. By showing his readers what the soldier’s daily thoughts are and how they handle what is going on around them. Tim O’Brien expresses this theme by using characterization, symbolism, and tone continuously. In the story, physical and emotional burdens plagued several characters as they all had baggage weighing them down.

The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.

The author frequently spoke on the things the soldiers carried and how the war has a meaning inside and out. Moreover, this war story means something in the text and real life. When describing the things the soldiers carried, Tim O’Brien states, “Rat Kiley carried a canvas satchel filled with morphine and a plasma and tablets… Henry Dobbins carried the m-60 which weighed 23 pounds unloaded” (O’Brien 5). Later on in the text O’Brien states, “when Curt Lemon was killed, I found it hard to mourn” (O’Brien 82).

Therefore, their emotional burden also increases, as does their physical burden from the weight their fallen comrade. O’Brien’s use of imagery depicts the true horrors of war and how they have perpetuated the physical and emotional burdens of the soldiers who