Blog 3: The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories about the Vietnam War. This work focuses on a group of fictional characters, including the character of Tim O'Brien, who must face difficult trials and tribulations while fighting to stay alive in Vietnam.
O'Brien begins the first chapter, "The Things They Carried," by explaining the many things, both material and nonmaterial, that the soldiers in the Alpha Company must carry, or "hump," with them at all times. The fact that O'Brien intertwines what the soldiers carry on their backs with what they carry in their minds and hearts symbolizes how weighted-down they are, physically, mentally, and emotionally, by their circumstances. He focuses a lot on Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who carries not only photos and letters from a girl named Martha who he knows from home, but also an obsession for her. Martha represents what he left back home, as well as what the other men left.
Lietenant Cross also carries his guilt about the death of one of the Company's men, Ted Lavender. O'Brien explains that Cross "...felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead" (16). Cross' guilt "was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war" (16). This is yet another thing Cross will have to carry with him, which reveals just how taxing the war could be on a man's soul and conscience.
Another chapter, entitled "On the Rainy River," is about how O'Brien deals with being drafted to the war. Soon after he gets the letter in the mail ordering him to join the draft, he drives up north toward the Canadian border, where he meets a man named Elroy who offers him lodging. He stays with this man for 6 days, at the end of which the man discretely offers him a chance to swim to Canada. O'Brien describes the many people he imagined to be urging him on, but he makes the decision not to escape. He describes his shame at this, admitting that "right then I submitted. I would go to the war - I would kill and maybe die - because I was embarrassed not to" (59). O'Brien explains that by choosing not to take action against the draft, he essentially acted like a coward. In this chapter, O'Brien describes Elroy as a hero because he stood back and allowed O'Brien to choose his own path instead of pressuring him to do one thing or another.
At the end of the work, in the chapter entitled "The Lives of the Dead," O'Brien provides an example of how people cope with death and the loss of innocence. In this chapter, O'Brien explains how his childhood sweetheart Linda died of cancer. Unlike the soldiers in the Vietnam War, Linda does not do anything to bring on her death. She symbolizes O'Brien's innocence, which fades as Linda dies and he sees her dead body. O'Brien copes with Linda's death by seeing and speaking to her in his dreams. Similarly, the men in the Alpha Company often try to make light of tragic situations to cope with them, such as when they shake the hands of the dead and describe Ted Lavender at his death as falling "like cement... boom, down. Not a word" (17).
The Things They Carried is a work of fiction, and the characters, even the character of O'Brien himself, are all made up by O'Brien. Although it is a work of fiction, however, it reveals the everyday lives and experiences of American soldiers. As O'Brien is a war veteran himself, the work has an authenticity only a person who has experience in war can offer. This is why, despite the fact that this is a fictional work, the characters' emotions and experiences are still relevant and believable.