The Things They Carried

First off, wow. I have seen war movies and read about the Vietnam War enough to actually feel like I was living during that time period, but this passage is different. Tim O'Brien certainly has a deep understanding into the minds, feelings and actions of soldiers. While reading it, I began to understand that these soldiers carry more than can openers, Kool Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, love letters, pistols, bullets, food, rations, plastic explosives--they carry the mental and emotional idea that they may die.

The long list of material things that the men carried does not begin to compare with the emotional baggage of shame, guilt, death, and cowardliness. Why did I put those four emotions in that order? Well, in the text the men seem to experience trauma in that order. For example, Lt. Cross felt shame in Ted Lavender's death, then he felt so guilty because his "daydreaming" about Martha caused Ted to get shot. After that he the realization had set in that Ted died. It wasn't an initial reaction. Lt. Cross had seen many men die, but this particular man, he felt died because of his negligence. The final emotion that is somewhat detached from this particular incident between Lt. Cross and his emotions about Ted is cowardliness. All of the men in this particular platoon were afraid to experience being a coward.


Why? Well, the same question arises for us. Why wouldn't we want to be cowards? Is there a difference when war is involved or is it all the same? I would have to say that the feeling is the same whether or not someone is in war, the only difference is during war...if you let the emotion become you, whatever that emotion may be, you may very well be the cause to your own undoing.

I'm usually able to put myself in the place of the characters I am reading about, but I couldn't do it while reading this text. The men all experienced such different things, but the one thing they all had in common was that they were all human and experience human emotions. They all hurt. They all joked about some aspects of the war in order to not go insane. They all tried to stay level-headed. If I had to put myself in their place, I don't think I could. I could not imagine even a fragment of my life being put in their position or being put through that kind of harsh emotional anguish.

Drawing by: Brittney TM Perez