The_Thing_They_Carried

The Thing They Carried The Things They Carried War is hell. The simple phrase is basically true and seems easy to imagine. However, nothing compares to actually fighting in a war. The narrator, Tim O’Brien tells many stories about his war experience and brings the reader into his world of bravery, shame, death, and beauty. Obviously the title evinces that one of the focuses is on what the soldiers carried, which not only covers the physical items but bleeds into the emotional and psychological baggage of the war. Even after the war, the soldiers still had to “hump” the pain, guilt, nightmares, and deaths that continue to burden their thoughts. Every character carried items specific to their rank, necessity, mission, superstition, background, girlfriends, and many other factors. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien and Jimmy Cross carried many of the same items for survival and sanity, but their personal items and those hidden deep within the thought and consciousness separate the two soldiers and the men that actually returned from the war. Jimmy Cross was the leader and in charge of the platoon; therefore, he carried more equipment than others including a compass, code books, maps, and binoculars. Along with the leadership things, carried, war, o’brien, jimmy, death, men, tim, items, after, while, soldier, kiowa’s, about, two, soldiers, cross, actually, way, stories, result, pain, out, himself, every, same, responsibility, pictures, others, one, memories, martha, guilt, cope, came