Tim O'Brien

Blog about "The Things They Carried".  What is the story saying about the theme of war? Include specific quotes to backup your points.  


By reading the title, "The Things They Carried", can give the readers a prediction of what the story is going to be about.  In this story, it is about Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who is serving in the Vietnam War. The theme of this story is the how war takes an emotional toll on these young soldiers and how being away from their love ones carries either a toll or a transformation of their personalities for the better.   The protagonist, Lieutenant Cross,  said that he was 24 years old.  Being this young and having to serve the army carries a lot of responsibilities.  One of the responsibilities to act more mature beyond what is expected of a 24 year old, instead of doing what most college graduates are doing at the same time.  But his oblivious love relationship between Cross and a young female, Martha, help keep him get rid of the responsibilities to act more mature.  By the age of 24 years old, most people are thinking about marriage and sharing a life with someone.  So this relationship is important because Cross thinks that Martha is a glimpse of hope and motivation to stay alive.  He thought that she is waiting for her knight in shining armor to come back from war.  This relationship helps Cross to act more like his age instead of acting twice his age because when he thinks about Martha, he thinks that he can be in a better place instead of having to worry about the risk of dying every single day. Through the story, she sends Cross letters and a good luck charm and how "she ha found the pebble on the Jersey shoreline, precisely where the land touched water at high tide, where things came together but also separated" (345).  So through the war, Cross is carrying letters and a good luck pebble to help get his mind off the situation that he is in.  This relationship helped keep his mind off what the situation is like in Vietnam.  He rather be "walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha" (345), instead of "[carrying] lice and ringworm and leeches and paddy algae and various rots and molds" (348).  He "loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her" (344). This friendship is important because he feels that he is loved and he thought that a person is waiting for him.  Also, this shows that Cross is mentally strong because even though that he thinks there is someone who is in love with him; he is still more willing to give up his life for the sake of the country.

But near the end of the story, he realize that he Martha does not love him.  This emotional transformation made Cross a stronger person.  I felt that Cross transformed into an adult because before, I felt that Cross needed a lot of affection like a child and he took the letters from Martha as love letters where he can be emotionally attached to someone. I felt that he needed someone to talk to and he felt that Martha would understand his  emotional needs.  In a way, Martha also represented this idea that she represented home because in her letters, she will write about how her life is like in college.  So Cross did not lose the connection to home. Also, his position in the military had a large impact on his emotional development. I feel that having the title of lieutenant by the age of 24 is overwhelming because he is such a young guy with so many responsibilities. But he realize that he can not blame Martha for the lost of Ted Lavender.  She took such a large part of his mental stage during the war that he could never focus on what his job responsibilities are.  He realize that she would never understand because she "had never mentioned the war, except to say, Jimmy, take care of yourself.  She wasn't involved.  she signed the letters Love, but it wasn't love, and all the fine lines and technicalities did not matter" (354).  Cross soon realize that he could not relay on someone else who does not understand the emotional pain of losing a person during war.  Cross realized that he has to rely on personal strength to be able to make it to the end of the story.  He knew that he forgot that he has duties to fulfill and "was now determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence.  It wouldn't help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on he would comport himself as an officer... He would accept the blame for what had happened to Ted Lavender.  He would be a man about" (354-55). This shows that he transformed into an adult and is taking responsibilities for his stupidity.