“The Things They Carried”

{ November 21, 2009 @ 11:23 pm } · { Uncategorized }

I am currently reading “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien and after some reflection I believe this title relates to everything I have talked about in my blog thus far.  This book is set during the Vietnam War but the story it tells can relate to every soldier at any time, in any war.  Before reading I thought of the title of the book and the image of a soldier with a lot of equipment and baggage came to mind.  What do soldiers carry?  They carry weapons, protection and survival equipment, all of which weighs heavily on each soldier.  But, soldiers carry much more then physical things that we can see on the outside.

They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die.  Grief, terror, love, longing—these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.  They carried shameful memories.  They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture.  They carried their reputations.  They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. (21)

Soldiers carry so much on their minds that can be just as heavy as any military equipment.  They have the stress of worrying about things left behind such as family, friends, pets, bills and so much more.  They carry with them their past beliefs, plans and dreams.  The unknown of what is to come is a lot to handle.

Throughout this blog I have mentioned the importance and impact of PTSD.  The issues and things soldiers carry during war time doesn’t just go away.  In the book two soldiers meet up after the war and “….talked about everything we had seen and done so long ago, all the things we still carried through our lives” (27).  When looking at old photographs they came across a picture of a fallen friend.

At one point, I remember, we paused over a snapshot of Ted Lavender, and after a while Jimmy rubbed his eyes and said he’d never forgiven himself for Lavender’s death.  It was something that would never go away, he said quietly, and nodded and told him I felt the same about certain things (63).

The things soldiers see at war ever goes away.  They carry with them the memories and images that haunt their lives.  For some, the pain becomes too much and they act out such as the shooter at Fort Hood or the other soldiers that have killed loves ones and themselves because of PTSD.  The book also talks about a soldier losing control as well.

It got to the point finally where he lost control.  Something must’ve snapped.  One afternoon he began firing and yelling, and it didn’t stop until he’d rattled off an entire magazine of ammunition (63).

For me this book has summed of the content of my blog thus far.  War leaves scars that don’t go away.  It affects every aspect of the soldier’s life and it affects everyone around them.

O’Brien, Tim.  The Things They Carried.  New York: Broadway Books, 1990.

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