A Critical Analysis Of The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a short story about a platoon that consisted of 17 men, led by Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, and their experiences during the Vietnam War. The story is centered around the terrible conditions of Vietnam and the many items carried by the soldiers that were not only needed for survival, but also personal items that helped them get through each day. Each soldier carried the same necessities, some of them are: a flak jacket, a plastic poncho, pocket knives, steel helmets, and mosquito repellant. Every soldier carried their own personal items; Mitchel Sanders carried condoms, Norman Bowker carried a diary, Rat Kiley carried comic books, and Kiowa carried an illustrated New Testament. They also carried items that were specific to their rank or field specialty; for example, as a machine gunner, Henry Dobbins carried the M60 and ammunition which weighed around 35 pounds. The majority of the short story, The Things They Carried, talks about the items the soldiers carry throughout war and the weight it bared on them, but really their emotions during the war put a much bigger toll on them. Each of the …show more content…
His emotions caused him to carry around the burden of not being loved by Martha and caused the death of one of his soldiers because was always more focused on her than his men. Another theme of this short story is the burdens the soldiers carried around. Some of the burdens the soldiers carried around were physical, such as the heavy items they needed for war and then the emotional burdens that they had to carry around for the rest of their lives affected them much more. O’Brien shows that the worst thing about war isn’t having to carry very heavy equipment, it is in fact their emotions they have to carry around and the burdens it puts them