Things They Carried Symbolism

The Things They Carried: A Look inside These Men In the short story “The Things They Carried,” by author Tim O’Brien, our attention is directed toward a squad of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The narrator brings us a monologue of himself, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his men about the different kinds of ‘things’ that are carried. I agree with critic Rena Korb says, in O’Brien’s way of setting the psychological setting within the men. O’Brien uses symbolism that is filled with mixed feelings of war and materialism to show the psychological weight that these men carry. While at the same time he gives us characterization that is usually told through dialog through the same symbolism. O’Brian creates his short story seemingly revolving around the gear that is carried by the soldiers, but it is shown that the emotional attachments that are created by them builds much to the whole story. Rena Korb, the author who wrote a critique on this short story points out the …show more content…
For example we read the specific gear that is humped by each man. For one soldier, Mitchell Sanders only had a few lines about what he is described, “… the RTO, carried condoms.” (O 'Brian) It isn’t very hard to guess what kind of man Mitchell is after reading that. We also see Henry Dobbins as a “big man” carry a huge machine gun and is said to love the extra rations he holds also. We can see that Tim O’Brian wants us to make characters seem more human and almost relatable through the gear that these soldiers each carry. We see Kiowa “a devote Baptist” carry a bible and “his grandfather’s old hunting hatchet.” (O 'Brian) From this brief description one can say this character is a god fearing man who holds on to the past. Because of the kind of materialism that is shown, we can see exactly what kind of men these soldiers are without an author going into the minds of each