The Things They Carried

The short story “The Things They Carried” has many vivid passages, but my favorite is this:

“What they carried was partly a function of rank, partly of field specialty.
As a first lieutenant and platoon leader, Jimmy Cross carried a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and .45-caliber pistol that weighed 2.9 pounds fully loaded. He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men...
As a medic, Rat Kiley carried a canvas satchel filled with morphine and plasma and malaria tablets and surgical tape and comic books and all the things a medic must carry, including M&M's for especially bad wounds, for a total weight of nearly 20 pounds.”

This passage serves to show the soldiers as people, individuals, who have found various ways to cope with the burden of the sometimes terrible things that their country requires of them. It emphasizes the fact that not only do their carry the things with physical weight, they also carry hopes, dreams, fears, responsibilities, and regrets. It is a very vivid passage.

The main character in “The Things They Carried” is First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. His primary want through most of the piece is to return to New Jersey, and a girl named Martha, whom he believes himself to be in love with. When one of the soldiers under his command, Ted Lavender, dies, Jimmy blames himself for the loss, believing it to be caused by his daydreaming. He therefore resolves to “comport himself as an officer,” and to stop thinking about returning to New Jersey and Martha.

My favorite object from “The Things They Carried” is the copy of the New Testament carried by Kiowa. The contrast between the environment (Vietnam), Kiowa's Native American heritage, and the anglicized New Testament makes for a very interesting dichotomy.