In Tim O’Brien’s story The Things They Carried, the characters of Ted Lavender, Jimmy Cross, and the rest of the men are symbolic of strength. They carelessly take on situations and make it better than it is. The story is about the Vietnam War with military men that need to be mentally strong to survive. Each of them brings different items that’s important to one another along with the necessities. Some may think it’s unrealistic considering how light they are taking the situation they are in and also may think it’s unrealistic as of how often they curse throughout the story and think that people do not curse that much while being there. These countless acts of strength are symbolic throughout the whole short story. Mentally, physically,
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Throughout the story they need to carry along various objects that weigh either light or heavy. A light object they bring is a Claymore antipersonnel mine that weighs 3.5 pounds and a heavy object that they bring is one pound blocks of penrite high explosives that weighs 68 pounds. They also bring a few of their personal possessions that help describe what kind of person they might be. For example, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross brings a couple photographs a girl he loves named of Martha, The RTO named Mitchell Sanders carries condoms, Kiowa has the New Testament, and Ted Lavender brings dope. The photos that Jimmy Cross carries cause him to be ecstatic and often dreamed about seeing her again. He’s obsessed to the point that he often ignores the activity around him and thinks about her instead. Thinking about Martha when Lavender dies and blames himself for what happened to him. Starting to grieve about Ted but grieved more for Martha, even though he knew that she wasn’t. He blames himself for Ted's death since he was fantasizing rather than instead of paying attention to his own men. “He felt shame. He hated himself. He loved Martha more than his own men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the
Throughout the story they need to carry along various objects that weigh either light or heavy. A light object they bring is a Claymore antipersonnel mine that weighs 3.5 pounds and a heavy object that they bring is one pound blocks of penrite high explosives that weighs 68 pounds. They also bring a few of their personal possessions that help describe what kind of person they might be. For example, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross brings a couple photographs a girl he loves named of Martha, The RTO named Mitchell Sanders carries condoms, Kiowa has the New Testament, and Ted Lavender brings dope. The photos that Jimmy Cross carries cause him to be ecstatic and often dreamed about seeing her again. He’s obsessed to the point that he often ignores the activity around him and thinks about her instead. Thinking about Martha when Lavender dies and blames himself for what happened to him. Starting to grieve about Ted but grieved more for Martha, even though he knew that she wasn’t. He blames himself for Ted's death since he was fantasizing rather than instead of paying attention to his own men. “He felt shame. He hated himself. He loved Martha more than his own men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the