Analysis of "The Things They Carried".
In Tim O"Brien's "The Things They Carried" he describes a group of soldiers as they make there way through the War ravished Jungles of Vietnam. Each soldiers is described as carrying items, both tangible and intangible, as they march on there missions. The soldiers are carrying baggage that we all carry in our own lives, they are carrying equipment to make their lives easier, they are carrying emotional feelings that haunt them, and they are carrying personal possessions that remind them of home and the reasons they need to survive the ordeal they are in. Sometimes, just as these soldiers did, we carry more then we can bear.
Just as people carry equipment they need to survive everyday like a cell phone for work, or a laptop for a business, or even a wallet, with all personal information in it, the soldiers carried all the equipment they needed to survive in the war. They carried weapons such as .45-caliber pistols, M-16 gas operated rifles, M-79 grenade launcher, twelve to twenty magazine clips of ammunition, and other weapons of choice (Tim O"Brien 850-854). The soldiers all carried special equipment depending on there rank with in the group. Rat Kiley carried medical equipment since he was the medic and Mitchell Sanders carried the PRC-25 radio, since he was the radio operator (O"Brien 853). If you add up all the equipment the men carried, it would weigh between 70-80 pounds. This is a tremendous weight to carry through the jungle on a daily basis. .
Emotions are felt by people everyday, and in certain circumstances, they are magnified. The soldiers felt emotions as they proceeded on missions through the war. Jimmy Cross felt the emotion of love, and even though Martha did not love him, the circumstance that he was in made him really think she loved him. The soldiers felt sympathy for Lee Strunk when he drew number seventeen, and had to search the tunnel (O"Brien 851-856).