Only What They Carry: Soldiers' Pride

“The Things They Carried” evokes the Spartan images of soldiers’ life in fighting a hellish war. Since they are denied of the amenities of civil society, soldiers depend on the necessities in their rucksacks for comfort and survival. As discussed in class, soldiers face the constant threat from being killed, yet the few possessions that accompany them can improve the odds of surviving in combat.

The few personal belongings of the soldiers fighting in Vietnam sometimes offer a moment of escape from the reality of the ravaging war. These items are invaluable to their survival and more importantly, offer them a sense of sanity. As I read through this story, I believe O’Brien incorporates the weight of these items to emphasize its importance. Though these burdensome items slow the soldiers’ combat movements, they are indispensable to those fighting in trenches. Soldiers in this story carry personal possessions to alleviate their loneliness and to soothe the hurtful feelings from missing their family. The reality of feeling disconnected torments soldiers like Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who must “hump,” wander, and serve for an unknown period of time. His only reach to the world outside the war zone is his collection of letters from Martha. By reading and pondering about her, the letters allow him to escape the horrors and deaths of war. Similarly, Ted Lavendar finds that using mind-altering drugs allows him to escape from the brutality of butchery to a more peaceful place, even though the transcendental sensation is ephemeral. I also believe O’Brien includes and vividly details their personal belongings to further emphasize the soldiers’ desire to return to their normal lives. The items the soldiers carry to war are meaningful to them, though they seem insignificant and readily available in our daily lives.

By using a third person narrator, the text reveals more about the soldiers’ minds. In describing the behavior of each character, their demeanor and conversations are unusually lax and casual. This is ironic because their game is in a place where death is often instantaneous. Nevertheless, the soldiers appear to be completely oblivious of the ubiquitous dangers that threaten their lives. Instead of being vigilant and quiet as they wait for Lee Strunk to clear a tunnel, the soldiers draw attentions by drinking Kool-Aid, smoking, and joking about their sympathy for their comrade. The squad is punished with Ted Lavender’s death, yet they remain callously indifferent by smoking his drugs. To avenge Lavender’s death, the soldiers savagely demolished the village of Than Ke. Moreover, the soldiers’ disrespectful jokes reflect their lack of military discipline. Mitchell Sanders–ironically the one who occasionally reminds the troops of moral values–is contemptuous in every aspect of human decency. In describing their encounter of the dead VC soldier, O’Brien emphasizes the chaos that the war has twisted Sanders’ mind. As he desecrates the corpse for luck, he justifies his barbaric act as a moral deed. This is disgraceful to military professionalism because soldiers have sacrificed their lives for a cause and deserve to rest in peace. Trying to appear as a professional soldier with a fearless appearance, nevertheless they fail to demonstrate their professionalism as they try to hide their fear from death. It is evident in Sanders’ callousness as he cracks debasing jokes such as to stay away from drugs and about Ted Lavender’s painless death in order to, “… destroy the reality of death itself” (¶68).

The items the soldiers carried do not change; however, the men who carry them are burdened from their experiences. Though they provide the soldiers with a momentary relief from the brutality of war, the idea of killing or be killed can only be realized by those under fire. At the end of the war, the soldiers will leave everything they had behind, but carry away the pride and pain that only they can understand. (642)