Sunday, September 7, 2014
9/7/14 The Things They Carried
The title, The Things They Carried, is incredibly symbolic through out the novel. The first chapter of this book is dedicated to naming all the odds and ends soldiers would "hump" with them through the jungles of Vietnam. The author outlines what many of the men in the platoon carry physically and emotionally. Physically, the men are loaded down nearly 40 pounds of equipment, food, water, and clothing. "The things they carried were largely determined by necessity" (O'Brien 2). They only carry things that are essential to living through the mission. The less they carry, the better off they are. Most men don't carry anything for their personal hygiene like a tooth brush or soap. They are willing to give up this luxury if it meant they have a lighter load on their backs and a better chance of surviving. Emotionally, they carry just as heavy a load as they do physically. Sometimes this weight becomes too much and they snap, resulting in random acts of violence like torturing a baby water buffalo or killing an abandoned puppy The man who carries the most mentally in the platoon is perhaps Jimmy Cross. "As a first lieutenant and platoon leader, Jimmy Cross carried a compass, ... and the responsibility for the lives of his men" (O'Brien 5). But the weight of those men's lives aren't the only thing he carries. He also carries his love for a girl named Martha he left back home in the US. He carries the knowledge that she will never really love him, despite how she signs her letters to him. Between all the responsibilities and facts he shleps with him through the jungles of Vietnam, Cross has on of the toughest roles in the platoon. The things they carried, physically and emotionally, is significant in the lives of the men in the novel.
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Jimmy Cross dealt wit the weight becoming too much for him too, just as you mentioned happening to Rat when he killed the buffalo. I think the moment Cross snapped was after Lavender's death. Carrying the weight of his men, Martha, and his bags was difficult as it was. When guilt from losing one of his men because he believed he was too distracted was added onto the weight, he knew he had to drop part of his load. He did this by letting go of the physical and mental weight Martha added onto his journey. Even though he was burning her letters and pictures because the weight was too much for him to balance, it was a sign of strength because he chose what he believed was a necessity to carry instead: the lives of his men.
ReplyDeleteIn the discussion of what soldiers carry to war it is interesting to think about what weighs on a person more, the physical load they carry or the emotional burden that they feel. On one hand, a physical burden fatigues the body tremendously and has a tendency to amplify the aches and pains that a person is feeling. A physical act also has some component of mental fortitude as a person must be able to get past the mental roadblock in order to successfully carry a load. On the other hand, emotional stress can sometimes feel like an overwhelming, suffocating force which is impossible to escape. Also, unlike a physical burden which tends to grant relief once it is removed, a mental burden often does not ever leave a person, always weighing them down. To put it simply, most physical wounds will heal but many emotional scars never become truly erased. Ultimately, I believe that Lieutenant Cross would say that the emotional toll that Ted Lavender's death took on him was much greater than the physical toll of anything he "humped."
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