The Things They Carried: Writing Assignment

Assignment: In a brief narrative, write about the kinds of things you carry. Think and write about what these things say about you. You can use physical and non-physical things… but you have to be specific.

My Response:

            Everyone carries things with them through their day to day live. While some are common like cellphones, keys and wallets, others are more “out of the box” like the pair of pantyhose that Henry Dobbins carried in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. There are also the burdens that people carry on their shoulders that you can’t actually see. For example, people may carry the death of a love one or their fears. The things that people carry are unique to that specific person. Which begs the question: What is it that I carry?

            One thing that I almost always have on me is a novel of some sort. At almost any given time, I have at least one, but normally two or three, books on my person. The genre doesn’t make a difference to me. I’ll happily devour anything from The Book Thief to the Harry Potter series to The Art of Racing in the Rain. I enjoy having a portable getaway into a different reality at my fingertips and books certainly fulfill that.

            Another thing I carry with me are my goals for the future and my determination to reach (and possibly exceed) them. For about four years now, I’ve had the outline of a plan for myself. I hope to graduate my high-school with as many accomplishments that I can possibly get my hands on and hope to land myself a ranking in the top ten of my class. This along with numerous other paddings to my college application (including being the statistics manager for three sports, holding a summer job working with children and my involvement in a number of clubs and societies) will hopefully get me accepted to a good university. I’m not looking to go Ivy League, of course, because that isn’t a practicality. However, I want to attend a nice, respectable college. From there, it’s my dream to study abroad in England, a place I’ve always had an urge to live in, even if it’s just for a semester. After I graduate with a major in English and possibly a minor in business, my dream career would be as a literary agent or editor. These goals and my determination to fulfill them are something I carry with me daily to motivate me.

             One more thing that I normally have on me is my opinions. While I can easily come off as quiet at first, that’s just a ruse. When I find something that I think is worth speaking up about, I quickly find my voice. However, I’ll always listen to other people and their differing opinions, but it’s normally just so I can inform them that they’re wrong afterwards. I can be quite stubborn with my opinions and a bit argumentative, but, in my defense, I’m normally right in the end. However, on the rare occasion that I’m wrong, I accept defeat gallantly.

            Finally, I always have jewelry on me in the form of my ring and my bracelets. The ring is something I’ve had for five or six years now. My mother and I have matching ones after an incident where I lost mine, bought a new one and then someone returned the original one. Since I wasn’t going to wear two identical rings, I gave one to my mum (which she paid me back for) and I wear the original one and haven’t taken it off since getting it back. It’s a beautiful silver ring with a blue stone. It’s important to me because I earned it with my own money from baby-sitting, it reminds me of my mother and I like what the color blue symbolizes (like trust, honesty, sincerity and many other things. I’m also almost always wearing an array of bracelets (and if I’m not wearing them then you can assume I woke up late). This includes a few Harry Potter ones and a Doctor Who one. I also have two Alex and Ani bracelets, one from my aunt and one from my boyfriend that he gave me for Valentine’s Day. Finally, I have a thick leather bracelet which is a part of a pair. My boyfriend has the other one. These are important to me because they symbolize many things that I value like my family, boyfriend and my longtime love for books and certain television shows.

            I don’t carry much, but the things I do carry are very precious and meaningful to me. I think it’s also safe to say that they’re unique to me and I won’t find someone else carrying the same load. In conclusion, the things that are always with me are books, my jewelry, my goals, determination and opinions. 

The Things They Carried: The Lives of the Dead

Question: What is the moral of the dead KIA’s? Consider Mitchell Sander’s view.

Answer:

            Mitchell Sanders, while viewing corpses, articulately says, “Death sucks.” (O’Brien, 243). While the thought is simple, it’s undoubtedly true. Once a person dies, they leave their life, including the people and things that they love within that life. While it’s still under speculation as to what actually happens after someone dies, the undisputable fact is that no matter what happens, you won’t be living the life that you worked so hard to create anymore. That, plus the fact that your body becomes a bloated, gassy corpse with a horrible stench, heavily supports Sanders interpretation. However, that doesn’t mean it’s the end. While your corpse is stuck, your spirit, the part that makes you be you (like your thoughts, passions and memories), goes on to whatever comes next. I think that the moral of this story is that yes, death sucks, but it’s not the end.

The Things They Carried: Night Life

Question: How did Rat Kiley get out of active duty? What is the author’s purpose in including this story so late in the novel and right after The Ghost Soldiers?

Answer:

            Rat Kiley gets out of active duty, technically, because he was ‘accidentally’ shot in the foot. However, the true story is that he went crazy and shot his own foot, very much on purpose. It seems that the dark (the men were traveling at night) plus the traumas of seeing men with gaping wounds or dead was too much for Rat and he lost his mind, seeing everyone (including himself) dead when they weren’t. The horrors of war finally push him over the edge.

            O’Brien put this in the end of the novel for a specific reason. He wanted the readers to get to know Rat Kiley as a good soldier and well trained medic before doing this to him. He wanted the readers to witness how the war can change a man so completely, bring a strong man like Rat to insanity. The fact that it follows right after “The Ghost Soldiers” is because that’s the chapter where Rat shows remarkable medic skills when treating Tim’s bullet wound and his leaving the platoon is first mentioned.

The Things They Carried: The Ghost Soldiers

Question: This is one of the only stories where the reader does not know the ending in advance. Why might O’Brien want this story to be particularly suspenseful?

Answer:

            O’Brien didn’t tell the reader the ending to “The Ghost Soldiers” in advance, because he wanted the reader to doubt Tim. Tim becomes malicious and cruel during this chapter as he seeks revenge against Jorgenson, a medic who almost cost Tim his life due to a mistake and accidentally lost him his spot as a soldier in their platoon. Although the whole situation was accidental and the medic apologizes, Tim cannot let it go and becomes obsessive. The reader begins to worry about what kind of man Tim is becoming as he recruits Azar, a soldier who has been rude and awful throughout the entire novel, to assist him and messes with Jorgenson with horrible, psychological mind games that makes Jorgenson think he is under attack. In the end, Tim tries to stop Azar once he sees the effect it has on Jorgenson and he apologizes. However, for a good part of the chapter, the reader witnesses Tim’s behavior and has doubts about what kind of man he is.

The Things They Carried: Stockings

Question: Consider the comparison the author makes between Dobbins and America. Does the author like America? Does he respect it?

Answer:

            Based off of O’Brien’s description of Henry Dobbins, he seems like a good guy, but not somebody you would look to as a leader or to make decisions. Tim says, “Henry Dobbins was a good man, and a superb soldier, but sophistication was not his strong suit.” (O’Brien, 117). This shows that O’Brien likes America, but does not respect it. While America may have good intentions and nice beliefs, it’s not the kind of country that he trusts to make decisions or to lead people. This shows that while he likes America for its good qualities, he can’t respect it if he can’t trust its leadership abilities. 

The Things They Carried: Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

Question: What transforms Mary Ann Bell into a predatory killer? Does it matter that Mary Ann is a woman? How so? What does this chapter tell the reader about the nature of the Vietnam War?

Answer:

            Mary Ann Bell comes to Vietnam in the middle of the Vietnam War as a young, innocent and naïve girl. Slowly, she begins to expose herself to the harsh realities of war and seems to accept them very well. She’s surrounded by injured soldiers who have missing limbs and bleeding profusely and visits a village where the children were unclothed and people were probably underfed. It’s not surprising that these events could easily begin her descent into insanity since they are far from anything she has ever seen before. Also, as she feels the rush from adrenaline while assisting the medics, she might start to crave that feeling and do more and more things to get it. Between her adrenaline hunger and the shocking events she recently saw, she decided to go with the Greenies, which probably encouraged both preexisting problems and maybe made her desire the wilderness as well. As she continues to spend more time with the Greenies, she changes. By the time Mark tries to stop it, she’s already changed and his efforts just push her away. She leaves with the Greenies and gets sunk in deeper and deeper until she’s gone forever. In short, it seems that Mary Ann couldn’t handle the horror of wars or resist the addicting feelings of adrenaline and the wilderness.

            It is important that Mary Ann is a woman. At the time, women are viewed as simply sweet and gentle. When Mary Ann arrives, they assume that she won’t turn dangerous because she is a woman and that’s not how they are. However, just like some men do, the war quickly changes her and she loses her mind. The Vietnam War changes people. Sometimes is just makes boys into men or it brings the courage and leadership out in people. However, other times it breaks people. It gives them the taste of blood or shows them things that they can’t handle seeing and they go crazy. Either way when someone goes into this war, they come out as a changed person.

The Things They Carried: The Dentist

Question: Characterize Curt Lemon and why he behaves the way he does. How does this affect your reading of the previous chapter? What is the purpose of placing this chapter directly after How to Tell a True War Story?

Answer:

            Curt Lemon was a soldier who wanted to be seen as tough. He boasted and did crazy dangerous things so that he could talk them up. It seems that he had a low self-esteem issue and was worried that other people would begin to view him as he viewed himself. He did dangerous things and wouldn’t stop talking about it because he wanted people to think of him as a dangerous, crazy, tough guy and he didn’t want them to forget it. He worried when he showed the smallest sign of weakness and rectified it as quickly as possible.

            After learning this, it affects my initial view of him and therefore my interpretation in the chapter previous. I still think that he was wrong to be reckless and dangerous, but I’m more sympathetic of him now. All he was trying to do was appear tough, probably so that the other guys would like him or at least respect him. While it doesn’t excuse his actions, it makes it more understandable. After all, Tim described him and Rat as “kids” (which presumes that they’re probably 18 or 19, if Tim, a 21 year old, views them as kids). He was probably just a boy who either joined the war or was drafted and wanted the older guys to think he was just as strong as them and whatnot. After knowing this information, the last chapter is sadder to me now that I feel that I know Curt Lemon better and his actions are more understandable and forgivable. The author put this chapter after “How to Tell a True War Story” to show that you shouldn’t judge people because you never know the reasons or stories behind the way they behave.

The Things They Carried: How to Tell a True War Story

Question: Often, in the course of his stories O’Brien tells the reader beforehand whether or not the story will have a happy ending. Why might he do this? According to the author, how do you tell a true war story?

Answer:

            When O’Brien tells a story, he often says whether or not it will have a happy ending beforehand. This is because a lot of the time the story is not about the ending. It’s about the middle, the course of actions that take place to get there. More often than not, telling the end doesn’t ruin the story. It just sparks more interest for the reader because they’re curious as to how the story has gotten to the place to allow that ending to occur. Also it helps the reader to view things that the author means them to be viewed from the beginning. Occasionally the reader will think that something is good when the author means it to be bad. For example, in the chapter “On the Rainy River”, I thought that Tim joining the army and not running away was a sign of courage when the author meant it as a sign of cowardice and a cause for embarrassment. If he had not made that clear within the beginning by saying “This is one story I’ve never told before… To go into it, I’ve always thought, would only cause embarrassment…” (O’Brien, 39), I would have never known that it was something he was ashamed of.

            According to O’Brien, there are a lot of elements to telling a true war story. One important factor is that it must never have a moral to it and the point of the story, if there is one, isn’t something that is ever really comprehended. If the war story does have a moral, it’s most likely not true. However, if it manages to be both true and have a moral, then the moral is buried very deeply inside it. Due to the witness’s perspective of the events being more surreal than the actual events, it’s likely that the story will seem fake, which just proves that it’s real. True war stories don’t really have an ending and can go on forever. Finally, to tell a true war story, the story isn’t really to be about war. It’s about the things that happened during the war that contradicted the war, the things that stood out because they weren’t really about war at all.

The Things They Carried: Friends

Question: Why are Enemies and Friends back to back in this book? What is the reader supposed to learn about humanity from these chapters?

Answer:

            The chapters “Friends” and “Enemies” are back to back in the novel, because they’re related in a way. For one, both focus mainly on two soldiers, Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen. It shows the relationship between the two, although they’re in very different stages of their relationship in the chapters. In “Enemies”, the two men are fighting and are unable to trust one another. In “Friends”, the chapter that follows “Enemies”, the two men are friends and close again. They’ve even entered into a pact of sorts that says that if one of them is very badly injured (as in paralyzed or wheelchair bound), the other will kill him. Then Strunk gets injured and loses his leg. However he tells Jensen not to follow through with their deal because he, while in denial, believes that the doctors will be able to put the leg back on. Jensen agrees with him, although it seems like he doesn’t believe it, and later Strunk dies from his injuries, which relieves Jensen because he wouldn’t have to kill Strunk himself. This chapter shows that the two men are close again and that Jensen, who has probably had to kill men in the war before, seems like he wouldn’t have been able to kill Strunk. These two chapters being besides each other shows that the soldiers, although they sometimes fight, care for each other. The relationships between the soldiers reminds me a lot of a relationship between siblings or brothers. They fight sometimes, but no matter what they care for each other, want the best for one another and could probably never seriously hurt each other on purpose.

            There are a few characteristics that are mostly exclusive to humans and humanity. Fear, stress, paranoia, compassion, a sense of duty and forgiveness are examples of this and they’re shown in the chapters “Enemies” and “Friends”. During “Enemies”, Jensen, after hurting Strunk during a fight, worries that Strunk will try and get revenge. Jensen becomes crazy with fear, stress and paranoia. The book describes this and says, “Jensen couldn’t relax. Like fighting two different wars, he said. No safe ground: enemies everywhere. No front or rear. At night he had trouble sleeping—a skittish feeling-- always on guard, hearing strange noises in the dark, imagining a grenade rolling into his foxhole or the tickle of a knife against his ear. The distinction between good guys and bad guys had disappeared for him. Even in times of relative safety, while the rest of us took it easy, Jensen would be sitting with his back against a stone wall, weapon across his knees, watching Lee Strunk with quick, nervous eyes. It got to the point finally where he lost control.” (O’Brien, 63) and this leads to Jensen having a breakdown. This chapter is trying to explain to the reader that fear and paranoia can overwhelm and take over a person and their life causing them to act differently and irrationally. During “Friends”, Jensen and Strunk are friends again and make a pact that one would kill the other if he becomes extremely and permanently injured. Jensen is put into this position when Strunk loses his leg, but Strunk dies before he has to follow through. It’s obvious that Jensen has no desire to kill his friend, no matter what his injury is. However, it seems that he would’ve done it, if Strunk hadn’t died on his own, due to his promise that he made and because it’s what his friend had wanted. This seems to be telling the reader that sometimes people have to do things that they don’t want to do because of their sense of duty or compassion. Both chapters put together show two men recovering from a fight and learn to trust one another again, which leads to a strong friendship between them. This is an example of forgiveness and shows the reader that by forgiving and letting go of old feuds, new and great things have the opportunity to be built.

The Things They Carried: Enemies

Question: What can be learned from this story about soldiers during the war?

Answer:

            The chapter “Enemies” in The Things They Carried tells of two soldiers in the same platoon, Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen getting into a fight over a trivial reason. It results in Strunk having semi-serious injuries involving a broken nose and Jensen gets so paranoid that Strunk will retaliate that he goes crazy and paranoid. At one point he begins screaming and shooting off bullets into the sky. Eventually, Jensen breaks his own nose in an effort to even the score between himself and Strunk, which ends Jensen’s paranoia. This chapter shows the high tensions and pressure on the soldiers in a war. They’re wound very tightly and their anxieties are heightened. A small fight between two men over something unimportant would normally result in a few punches and maybe some distance between the men for a while in a normal setting. However, during the war, the same situation causes actual injuries for the one man and the other man becomes increasingly paranoid due to how tightly the soldiers are wound. It also shows that in a place like war where the soldiers are surrounded by enemies on all sides, the men need to know that they can trust the other soldiers to protect them and keep them safe. Once Jensen lost that feeling of trust, he was driven to the brink of his sanity. 

The Things They Carried: On The Rainy River

Question: In this chapter the reader learns of 21 year old O’Brien’s theory of courage: “Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down. It was a comforting theory.” What might the 43 year old O’Brien’s theory of courage be? Were you surprised when he described his entry into the war as an act of cowardice? What is the relationship between shame and courage, according to the author?

Answer:

            At 21, O’Brien’s theory of courage, as stated in the book, says: “Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down. It was a comforting theory.” (O’Brien, 40). O’Brien, now 43 years old, would most likely have a very different theory after gathering 22 more years of experience and his time in the war. It seems that if O’Brien were to have a theory now, it might be something along the lines of: “A courageous person doesn’t wait for an opportunity to be courageous arises. They make their own opportunities.” It seems that he would think this due to his past experiences. He used to believe that people had courage that was saved up for some huge act of heroism and courageousness. After his experience with getting what he saw as that opportunity and being unable to take it, he’d probably change his mind. He probably now thinks that when you have courage, you don’t wait for a chance to use it, you just use it.

             Personally, I was surprised to hear O’Brien describe him entering the war as being cowardly. It is widely viewed that soldiers are heroes. Therefore it would seem that he joining the war would be an act of heroism and not cowardice.

            O’Brien seems to believe that there is a direct relationship between shame and courage. He thinks that a person (or at least himself) needs to be ashamed of any situation where they fail to show courage. For example, when Tim fails to run away to Canada, an act that he views as being cowardly, he feels so ashamed of the event that he never tells anyone for 22 years. This proves that O’Brien sees the lack of courage in an event as a reason for shame.

The Things They Carried: Spin

Question: “On occasions the war was like a Ping-Pong ball. You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance.” What does this mean? What is the “spin” O’Brien is talking about? Identify where in the chapter O’Brien “spins” the story, events, etc. What is he trying to show the reader?

Answer:

            In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim, the narrator, says “On occasions the war was like a ping-pong ball. You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance.” (O’Brien, 32). A ping-pong ball’s main purpose it to be bounced and, in the game of ping-pong, it can easily just be bounced back and forth between the opponents in the simplest way possible and the game will work perfectly. However, if there’s a wish to “spice it up” or make it interesting, the ball can do more than just bounce. It can spin and dance. This is to say that the way the ball is hit is up to the person hitting it and if they wish, they can make it fun or boring or interesting. The metaphor means is that the way the person playing ping-pong, or maybe a soldier, makes the ball bounce, or looks at the war, can change the overall experience. It’s another way of saying “life is what you make it”. These soldiers are in the war and that’s not something that’s going to change anytime soon. However, the way they view it is completely up to them. The “spin” that Tim O’Brien is referring to is having a positive outlook and making the best of what you’re given.

            O’Brien adds “spin” to his story by showing the positive or fun or even interesting events that took place in the war with his soldiers. He mentions the soldiers playing checkers, Lavender adopting a puppy and an old man who helped them that they grew to love. One example of this is when Tim describes a scene by saying “Or Kiowa teaching a rain dance to Rat Kiley and Dave Jensen, the three of them whooping and leaping around barefoot while a bunch of villagers looked on with a mixture of fascination and giggly horror.” (O’Brien, 36). He shows the things that they did to keep themselves going throughout the war.

            O’Brien is trying to show the readers what the war is like. A lot of people when they think of the war envision nonstop violence, killing and gunfire. While those things do play a huge part in the war, there are other things, too. There’s jokes, pranks, funny memories, deep conversations and games of chess. O’Brien wants his readers to realize this.

            

The Things They Carried: Love

Question: What is the purpose of this chapter? What kind of love is O’Brien talking about? Jimmy and Martha? Jimmy and the platoon? Jimmy and Tim? Tim and his work? Love for his country?

Answer:

            This chapter’s purpose is to give a look at how some soldiers can be after the war and how these particular characters are doing. The book reads that all the two men, Jimmy Cross and the narrator, did when they met back up was “drank coffee and smoked cigarettes and talked about everything we had seen and done so long ago, all the things we still carried through our lives.” (O’Brien, 27).  They talk of the war and discuss memories, good and bad, including Ted Lavender’s death. It also shows that Jimmy Cross survives the war and isn’t with Martha, although he still loves her. It also reveals that the narrator is a writer. This chapter ends with the two men discussing a book that the narrator may write and saying, “He hesitated for a second. “And do me a favor. Don’t mention anything about---“

            “No,” I said. “I won’t.”” (O’Brien, 30). This is an obvious ploy to build suspense over what the event is that they aren’t mentioning.

            The love that O’Brien is referring to in the chapter title is the love between Jimmy and Tim. After going through a tremendous, life-changing experience together, it isn’t uncommon for two people to connect in a permanent way and war is certainly an example of this. It seems that Jimmy and Tim bonded over the horrible things they witnessed and from having pretty much lived together, along with the other men, during the war. There’s also an underlying current of a love for the other members of the platoon. Both men reminisce over the things the other men did and carried. For example, Tim says, “…and not much later we were laughing about some of the craziness that used to go on. The way Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck like a comforter. Kiowa’s moccasins and hunting hatchet. Rat Kiley’s comic books.” (O’Brien, 28).  They seem to love each other and the platoon in a brotherly way. 

The Things They Carried: The Things They Carried

Question: In the list of all the things the soldiers carried, what item was most surprising? Which item did you find the most evocative of war? Which items stay with you? Explain the meaning of the title “The Things They Carried”. Explain the metaphor of weight.

Answer:

            Among the items that the American soldiers in the Vietnam War carried, there was one that surprised me. One of the soldiers, Ted Lavender, carried tranquilizers and dope, which the book explains by saying, “Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head.” (O’Brien, 2) and “Until he was shot, Ted Lavender carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity.” (O’Brien, 3). This object surprises me the most, not because it’s truly surprising that a scared man is self-medicating during a stressful time like war but, because of the ideals that I held soldiers to at a younger age. When you’re younger, you’re taught to view policeman, fireman, soldiers and people of similar standings and occupations as good guys and heroes. While most of them definitely are, the heroes you, or at least I, equated them with were not just people who selfishly did good deeds and whatnot, but flawless fighters without weaknesses. Now that I’m older, I realize that that’s obviously not a realistic view. However, it is, like most things you decide when you’re younger, imprinted in my mind still. This has made Ted Lavender’s drugs the most surprising thing to me for it revealed a weakness where I was not expecting to find one.

            The items that I view as most evocative of war would have to be the weapons that they carry. While it is an obvious choice, it is the one that I see as most fitting. In the book, they speak of many different weapons, some of which they describe by saying, “In addition to the three standard weapons- the M-60, M-16, and M-79--- they carried whatever presented itself, or whatever seemed appropriate as a means of killing or staying alive. They carried catch-as-catch-can. At various times, in various situations, they carried M-14s and CAR-15s and Swedish Ks and grease guns and captured AK-47s and Chi-Coms and RPGs and Simonov carbines and black market Uzis and .38-caliber Smith & Wesson handguns and 66 mm LAWs and shotguns and silencers and blackjacks and bayonets and C-4 plastic explosives.” (O’Brien, 7). They also mention that one soldier, Henry Dobbins, carries “between 10 and 15 pounds of ammunition” (O’Brien, 5). It’s not surprising that there are guns and weapons there, but to hear the numbers and names of various weapons makes it seem a lot more real. To me, guns and weapons are symbolic to violence and there’s nothing more violent than a war. The weaponry that the soldiers carry is the most suggestive of the war that they fight.

            The items that stay in my mind the most would have to be the letters, photos, pantyhose, M&Ms and Kool-Aid. The letters and photos are in my mind, because, in every war movie, book or show that I’ve been witness to, there’s always at least one soldier with a picture or letter from somebody waiting for him/her at home. It was one of the first things that came into my mind upon hearing the title and has managed to stay in there since. The pantyhose are an item that Henry Dobbins carried, which the book mentions, “Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose wrapped around his neck as a comforter.” (O’Brien, 10). These particular item isn’t the thing stuck in my mind, but more so the adorable mental image of a soldier with lacy pantyhose wrapped around his neck in a scarf-like fashion. I also find the sentiment of him carrying them and her sending them in the first place as romantic and cute. Finally is the M&M candy and Kool- Aid. These stay in my head for various reasons. One being that neither are very healthy or nutritional and I equate soldiers with being healthy and strong. Another being that it’s crazy to consider that the soldiers are roughing it out in the Vietnam climates while sipping on Kool- Aid and munching on candy. The two images are so different that my mind has a hard time processing them together.

            This chapter of the novel is titled “The Things They Carried”. It means that it shows the burdens that they carried with them through the war- physically, mentally and spiritually. The list of things they carry differs from ammunition to the deaths of others to moccasins to letters to slingshots to M&Ms to fear. One passage that describes this combination of physical and mental burden well talks about various weapons that they have and says, “… Some carry white phosphorous grenades. They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.” (O’Brien, 7). Weight is a very common factor within this chapter since they often include the weights that accompany each item (for example, “… the M-60, which weighed 23 pounds unloaded…” (O’Brien, 5)). However, weight is more than just a measurement that can be taken with a scale. There are different types of weight that are immeasurable. For example, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross feels responsible for Ted Lavender’s death and holds the weight of that and its guilt. It’s not something that can be put to a measurement of pounds or grams, but it’s real nonetheless. The weight you carry on your shoulders can be both physical and mental. Both are just as real as the other. The only difference between the two is that it’s much harder to put down the mental weight that you carry.