Think about it, if judging a book is considered bad, then judging a book by its title is even worse. After all, covers are pictures, pictures are worth a thousand words, and a title is just a phrase. But it’s not that simple, title names a book, and names are important. A title is the story’s first impression, just like a person’s name. It creates expectation, and even allow readers to imply the plot. In O’Brien’s short story titled “The Things They Carried,” devices such as symbolism, persistent repetition, and extended metaphors are used to convey the significance of the title to the story as a whole (366).
O’Brien uses repetition to create an unmistakable realization that men are always carrying “things” as referred to in the title; whether …show more content…
O'Brien uses these lists of items most effectively by giving a weight to them: the jungle boots weighed 2.1 pounds, the nylon flack jacket weighed 6.7 pounds, the quilted liner poncho weighed almost 2 pounds, and so on. The men have to carry or “hump” all of these supplies in the ever changing weather of Vietnamese jungle (368). The physical weight is an extended metaphor for the psychological and emotional weight they carry: love, fear, grief, emptiness, and “all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns” (377). These tangible or intangible objects, which they hump around throughout story, create certain heaviness for each individual as the physical items may be put down at times of rest, but the emotional baggage never leaves. For example, Lieutenant Cross blamed himself for the death of Ted Lavender because he “had loved Martha more” and due to that he burns Martha’s photograph as it reminded him of the death of his comrade (377). The burning of the photographs is a metaphor of his way to relieve himself of the weight of …show more content…
The things the soldiers carried help define who they are as a person. O’Brien listed out items such as “ mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters” to symbolize that these men, despite being war heroes, were just as normal as the average person and helped make them much more relatable to the readers. “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha,” Martha symbolizes the way in which soldiers in Vietnam think of the world back home; it is desirable and peaceful but also unrealistic (366). Jimmy Cross constantly wonders if Martha is a virgin because he wants her to stand for something pure and innocent—the opposite of what he has been exposed to in the war. Though he realizes that she does not love him, he is obsessed with Martha because she symbolizes the innocence of life before the war. The letters of Martha also symbolized what Cross might have if only he was back home, it fuels his imagination about his certainly one sided love towards Martha. One could say that Cross is no doubt a daydreaming romanticist based on the things he carried and the emphasis he
O’Brien uses repetition to create an unmistakable realization that men are always carrying “things” as referred to in the title; whether …show more content…
O'Brien uses these lists of items most effectively by giving a weight to them: the jungle boots weighed 2.1 pounds, the nylon flack jacket weighed 6.7 pounds, the quilted liner poncho weighed almost 2 pounds, and so on. The men have to carry or “hump” all of these supplies in the ever changing weather of Vietnamese jungle (368). The physical weight is an extended metaphor for the psychological and emotional weight they carry: love, fear, grief, emptiness, and “all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns” (377). These tangible or intangible objects, which they hump around throughout story, create certain heaviness for each individual as the physical items may be put down at times of rest, but the emotional baggage never leaves. For example, Lieutenant Cross blamed himself for the death of Ted Lavender because he “had loved Martha more” and due to that he burns Martha’s photograph as it reminded him of the death of his comrade (377). The burning of the photographs is a metaphor of his way to relieve himself of the weight of …show more content…
The things the soldiers carried help define who they are as a person. O’Brien listed out items such as “ mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters” to symbolize that these men, despite being war heroes, were just as normal as the average person and helped make them much more relatable to the readers. “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha,” Martha symbolizes the way in which soldiers in Vietnam think of the world back home; it is desirable and peaceful but also unrealistic (366). Jimmy Cross constantly wonders if Martha is a virgin because he wants her to stand for something pure and innocent—the opposite of what he has been exposed to in the war. Though he realizes that she does not love him, he is obsessed with Martha because she symbolizes the innocence of life before the war. The letters of Martha also symbolized what Cross might have if only he was back home, it fuels his imagination about his certainly one sided love towards Martha. One could say that Cross is no doubt a daydreaming romanticist based on the things he carried and the emphasis he