Birdyline Book Blog

The soldiers in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” carry both physical and emotional burdens as listed throughout the narrative by Liuetenant Jimmy Cross. Items such as can openers, wristwatches, and chewing gum are listed as necessities. Cross states, in fact, that the things they carried with them “were largely determined by necessity.” Among other specifications, Cross claims the chosen items served as “functions of rank,” varied depending on the individual mission, and were influenced by superstitions.

PSA: I was unable to find a link to read this short story in its entirety. O’Brien wrote a book by the same name including this story, so it is hard to find just this one isolated. I am not talking about the entire book (I have not even read it) but simply the short story. You can find plot summaries online if you are interested in context but if at all possible I highly recommend reading the story itself because it is incredible.

In that last classification the lines between necessary and unnecessary blur. Items such as lucky tokens and religious items are necessary to the soldiers, because despite the physical burden they may add to in pounds, the mental and emotional relief they provide makes them helpful or even imperative to the soldiers.

After describing these items and elaborating on some of the events his men are living through, Lieutenant Cross begins listing again. He starts with physical items just as the former items he’s listed have been. “…USO stationary and pencils and pens… Sterno, safety pins, signal flares spools of wire…” Afterwards Cross makes a jump to a non-physical weight for the first time.

“They shared the weight of memory.” Cross states, juxtaposing this burden with the scrambler radio described in the previous sentence as an item they took turns carrying. Memory is a powerful weight, and none of Cross’ men carry it alone. More physical are the diseases Cross describes. “…malara and dysentary… lice and ringworm and leeches… rots and molds.”

Then Cross makes a profound claim- that the soldiers carry their own lives, their identities even. We observe this to be true in multiple ways throughout the story. Not only are the soldiers facing a reality where they are at risk of losing their lives and are carrying them closely, responsible for their own fate, but the soldiers’ very identity- the essence of them as a human being- is at stake. Cross will later note that the men “died so they would not die of embarrassment.” To not participate in the fighting was to paint yourself a coward. Even soldiers who go as far as to shoot off their own fingers and toes are described bluntly as “pussies.”

In reality, reaching a point that a human being would be willing to take a deadly weapon to themselves to escape the horrible experience they’re living in is beyond what most could imagine, and is certainly not cowardly. It would take quite a lot to push someone to the point that they’d defy their own instincts, and yet people do. The ones who don’t still carry this fear, yet they carry something else, something even heavier, that manages to suppress it. This something else is described by Cross as “the soldier’s greatest fear… the fear of blushing.” In other words, their pride.

The connection between the physical and mental burdens carried by these men is beautifully illustrated by O’Brien at the very end in which Cross burns the letters and two photographs of the woman he has been dreaming of all throughout the war. He burns them because he believes they have caused him to become distracted, and led to the death of a fellow soldier, Ted Lavender, he may have otherwise saved. Cross attempts to severe his mental connection to the woman through the physical destruction of his precious mementos.

The physical burdens carried in this story all have direct ties to mental ones. As Cross himself acknowledges, many of the items provided safety but also provided “the illusion of safety.” The soldier who Cross failed to protect is recorded as carrying extra of almost all these safety items, because the physical weight of his load directly correlated with the mental load he carried. Ted Lavender’s deep fear of death overrode his discomfort in carrying extra supplies across grueling distances, just like the soldiers whose fear of war lead them to mutilate themselves. In the end, this soldier’s precautions are not enough to save him.

At the end of the story, Cross determines that following the rules more strictly will save more men, but this is doubtful. No more protective equipment would have saved Ted Lavender, and Cross likely could not have done anything either. The seriousness with which the Liuetenant weighs the rules is yet another non-physical burden he chooses to carry in order to feel protected and to rationalize what happen to Ted lavender rather than admitting that what happened could have happened to any one of the men. Cross himself could be shot down at any moment.

The men know this reality at their cores. They acknowledge their fear but attempt to laugh it off. In many ways, the soldiers attempt to carry nothing. They follow orders mindlessly, marching “for the sake of the march,” unwilling to admit that their repetitive duties could take a turn at any moment, and any day could be their last marching.

The men carry the tools, weapons, and rations they need to survive. They carry the physical reminders of where they are in the form of scars and diseases. They carry the knowledge of their circumstances- that death is a possibility at any moment. They carry a determination to set that knowledge aside. Lastly they carry the trauma. The things they’ve witnessed will be carried, as Cross shares, “like a stone in [their] stomach[s] for the rest of the war…” but Cross’ admittance falls short. This trauma and all the objects and concepts they’ve picked up to cope with it along the way will be carried beyond the war throughout their lives until they take their final breath.