The Things They Carried Title Analysis

“The Things They Carried,” is the title of Tim O’Brien’s story of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The title refers to the physical and emotional things the soldiers had to carry with them every day they were overseas. They are all were required to carry a certain amount of physical equipment with them and they also chose to carry their own unique items along with them. Along with their physical loads they each had their own personal emotions and thoughts that they carried and dealt with every day. They carried their fears too, the fear of dying, losing someone close to them, and the fear of letting others know they are afraid. For every extra item a soldier carried with him symbolized his personality and what he longed for or was trying to prevent. Every man carried his fears with him, even though each man might have different things to fear and different ways to deal with it, they all carried the same emotion and tried to hide it from their comrades. Letting others know you are afraid is not something you would like others to know and definitely not your enemies. The ability to become lost in thought and imagination was common among the men. And while being a temporary relief from the terrors of war it can also be a distraction that had the potential to get any one of them killed in an instant. In the story, some men were killed without …show more content…
Love, hate, hope, comfort, and survival. Everything they carried with them, both physically and emotionally, was a part of them and something they needed. In addition, fear, infections, disease, and memories of war were all things they had to carry with them. One of the author’s main concepts throughout the story is fear and how every man dealt with it individually and how they carried it with them. The characters kept these emotions to themselves and did their best to deal with these aspects on their own and in their own ways. They carried different items with them that