I honestly had trouble doing this because did respond to each quote and wrote out how each text was important to the Story and how it related to What believed the main point was. I decided to add some additional text into the first paragraph of my response and spoke about how hue never analyzed soldiers struggles in wartime so closely and how it clarified the struggles that they face in an attempt to relate it to myself. I also worked on my thesis statement Which was also addressed. Anted to clarify my thesis because it made it seem that I believed hat the main focus of the text was how the war changed the soldiers themselves. When my thesis was actually more focused on the physical and emotional weight soldiers are burdened with and how they can control you. The main thing I struggled with writing this was figuring out how to start them numbering on the second page. That took me about 30 minutes to figure out via Youth and Yahoo Answers, Over all I enjoy how this piece turned out, Kobo Rose Mrs..
Linda Davit ENGAGING 08 February 2015 The Things They Carried Tim Barbarian’s “The Things They Carried” is arguably neither a novel in itself or a singular short story. The Things They Carried serves as almost a prologue to the collection of stories the together create the entire same titled novel itself. Whether a short Story Of a novel its serves the same purpose, to share the stories and feelings and realities of ovary and a soldiers life and inner-workings with those Who have not experienced it themselves.
Written in 1990 ‘The Things They Carried” serves as almost a revisit to Vietnam and to the times surrounding the war. Several stories in the complete novel itself talk Of visiting With Old friends from the war and discuss the changes that they went through as a veteran of the only war America ever ‘lose. ” It also serves a personal reflection for the author himself. Yet more prevalent than anything else is the sense of weight this story conveys. Puts you in their shoes so you can feel their struggle and pain. The Things They Carried” makes the toll of the physical and emotional burdens that each soldier carries with them acutely aware to the reader. An unknown narrator describes What the soldiers serving With Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carry. Throughout the text O’Brien tells the reader what each man carries with him. He tells LIST in detail What each man carries. O’Brien doesn’t only write Of the physical things they carried but also the emotional and mental. The author gives us a kick into each soldier’s personality and symbolizes Who they are by stating What they carry. O’Brien speaks of Ted Lavender. He only human causality mentioned in the text: ‘Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried 34 rounds when he was shot and killed outside Than She, and he went down under an exceptional burden, over advent pounds of ammunition, plus the flak jacket and helmet and rations and water and toilet paper and tranquilizer and all the rest, plus the UN-weighed ear. ” (O’Brien 367) The death of Ted Lavender would become a catalyst for Jimmy Cross, its the weight along with everything Cross carries with him proves to be too much for Jimmy to handle. Jimmy Cross carries the most of all. Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack. ” (O’Brien 366) Jimmy Cross’s adoration and obsession with his unrequited love play a major role in the stories progression. It speaks of how the thoughts and emotions Cross carries for Martha keep him detracted and distant to what going on around him. He ultimately blames Martha and his inability to deal the love he has for her for the death of Ted Lavender, ‘onion was afraid. The guilt he carries over this eventually leads him to burn her photo and letter and rid himself of the pebble she gave him from the shore of New Jersey. There are many themes and directives in Barbarian’s ‘The Things They Carried. ” Tim O’Brien attempts to connect the reader with the characters in his story by describing “the things they aired. ” He opens a Window into the outward and inward life Of each soldier by describing the physical and emotion burdens that each character in specific has to ‘hump” with them.
O’Brien writes “As a big man, therefore a machine gunner, Henry Dobbins carried the M-60. Which weighed 23 pounds unloaded, which was almost always loaded. In addition, Dobbins carried 10 to 15 pounds of ammunition draped in belts across his chest and shoulders. ” (O’Brien 369) In the excerpt from the passage Cyprian attempts and successfully makes the reader aware of the physical strains each man goes through. Connecting even a reader who has never experienced war to the characters in an understanding to physical burdens.
Yet when O’Brien says “He Jimmy Cross] would imagine romantic camping trips in the White Mountains to New Hampshire. He would sometimes taste the envelope flaps knowing her tongue had been there, More than anything he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her,” (O’Brien 366) Later O’Brien writes: “His mind wandered, He had difficulty keeping his attention on the war _ On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes pen, but then he would slip away into day dreams, just pretending. Walking on the Jersey Shore vivid Martha, bare foot, carrying nothing. (Brian 371) O’Brien connects the reader with Jimmy Cross emotionally, he makes the reader feel empathy for Cross while setting one of the central themes in the story of escape and difficulty removing themselves from the life they used to know and the new life they were thrust into. Jimmy Cross dwells on his memories and spends his time imagining what he would have done, should have done, and What he wants to do with Martha instead of focusing on the dangers around him. Towards the end Of “The Things They Carried” Jimmy Cross begins to blame himself for the death of Ted Lavender.
He is angry with the fact that his lack of awareness factored into the loss Of one Of his men. He burns the letters and photos from Martha and plans of ridding himself of the pebble that she sent him from the beach in New Jersey. O’Brien writes, speaking of Jimmy Cross “He would accept the blame of what happened with Ted Lavender. He would be a man about it. ” (Cyprian 394) He later writes “Jimmy Cross reminded himself it was his obligation not to love but to lead. He would dispense of love- it was now not factor. (O’Brien 394) O’Brien is conveying that in letting go of what he once held onto Cross could now focus on what surrounded him, In less specific terms a soldier has to let go of what they once held dear and become a facet to war themselves, otherwise the weight they carry will drop them to the ground like concrete as it did to Ted Lavender. Otherwise the things the carry will carry them to their graves, Works Cited O’Brien, Tim.
