An Essay on Tim O'Brien's Short Story "The Things They Carried"

Tim O'Brien's short story "The Things They Carried" is at times a recitation of the mundane items carried by the soldiers of Alpha Company, fired off as if from the barrel of a rifle, and at other times is an in-depth look at the thoughts and emotions of the "grunts" as they "hump" their way through the jungles of Vietnam. It demonstrates that, while each man determines the physical items he carries in his pack; it is the psychological items that determine what each man carries in his heart. And while the physical items may change, it is the psychological that, in the end, changes them.

Narrated in the omniscient third-person, we learn of Lieutenant Cross and his platoon of men and the physical items each carry. O'Brien "uses this technique to describe the grunts experience not in terms of how they carry on, but what they carry on." (Piedmont-Marton 21) Each item carried is determined by many factors: rank, mission, time of day and, most importantly, by each man's unique character. "The soldiers in Lt. Cross's platoon are what they carry."(Piedmont-Marton 31) "Henry Dobbins, who was a big man, carried extra rations"; Kiowa carried his grandfather's hunting hatchet; "Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried 34 rounds" of ammunition, tranquilizers and "six or seven ounces of premium dope" "plus the unweighed fear." It is this emotion, that of fear, that makes the extra weight in drugs and ammunition a necessity to him and "necessity dictated."

Lt. Cross's physical burdens were determined by both his rank and his love of Martha. "He outranks the others so his humping duties are lighter in physical weight." (Piedmont-Marton 22) Although his pack may be lighter, his burden is heavier because he also carries the responsibilities of his men's lives. He carries his letters from Martha; weight 10 ounces, along with his love of Martha; weight undefined. Just as Ted Lavender's fear made the drugs and extra ammunition a necessity, Cross's fear makes his love of Martha a necessity. "For Jimmy, Martha represents the world of peace; she is unsullied by the war experience" (Korb 68) and so he carries his love as if it were a fortress protecting him from the cold, hard reality of war.

What happens when a psychological burden that is a necessity to a man's peace of mind no longer brings peace? The reader is shown one possible outcome when Ted Lavender is shot in the back of the head and Cross, blaming himself, takes on the added weight of guilt. Since he cannot bear the combined weight of his responsibilities, his love and the guilt, he casts aside the burden of his love. "Cross will become a real soldier; that is the only way to carry the weight of his guilt."(Korb 76). The physical ceremony of burning her letters and letting go of the weight they added to his pack symbolizes his letting go of Martha, just as the urge to swallow the pebble she had sent him signifies the new hardness he has in his stomach. He realizes now that her eyes "looked at him in a sad, sober way" because the things men carried inside can be the heaviest burden of all, and it is these burdens that have the ability to change a man's character. "It was very sad...the things men did or felt they had to."

Works Cited

O'Brien, Tim. "The Things They Carried" Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Longman, 2006. 274-289

Piedmont-Marton, Elisabeth, "An Overview of `The Things They Carried'," in Short Stories for Students, The Gale Group, 1999. Reproduced in Literature Resource Center

Korb, Rena. "The Weight of War," Short Stories for Students, The Gale Group, 1999. Reproduced in Literature Resource Center