Powder / Things They Carried

“down the first long stretch I watched the road behind us, to see if the trooper was on our trial. The barricade vanished. Then there was nothing but snow: snow on the road, snow kicking up from the chains, snow on the trees, snow in the sky; and on our trail in the snow. I faced around and had a shock. The lie of the road behind us was marked with our own tracks, but there were no tracks ahead of us. My father was breaking virgin snow between a line of tall trees. He was humming ‘Stars Fell on Alabama.’ I felt the snow brush along the floor boards underneath my feet. To keep my hands from shaking I clamped them between my knees.” For me the description of the snow fall was stood out the most. It seemed as if the snow was falling in overwhelming amounts. Everything was covered in snow; the road they drove on, the trees they passed, the skies they traveled under. I felt like I was traveling in the car with the boy and his father. Also the way the snow seemed to dominate over the two characters almost seemed symbolic.

My favorite object from the things they carried would probably have to be Lt. Cross’s letters. While I was deployed letters were very important to me. When I didn’t get any new mail, I would re-read old ones. I would imagine what the writers were doing. When I re-read my letters I would let my imagination take over and I was no longer where I was. It was a temporary escape. Some things change over time. We are no longer fighting an enemy in the jungles of Vietnam, many service personnel are now reading e-mails. However, around the world solders, sailors, airmen, and marines are still connected by the written word. I think that this will be a life line for many generations to come.