Carry On(s)

Of the many techniques O'Brien uses during "The Things They Carried", exaggeration and pathos are two of the most used. O'Brien uses his own experiences as the foundation of the story, and then subsequently builds upon them through fabrication and elaboration. In a later chapter during the book, he discusses, or rather admits to, this technique that he makes wild use of. While it makes for great story telling, once I read that not everything in the book is 100% true, I found myself questioning not only everything that I read up-to that point, but also everything I read therein after. None the less, still very much enjoyed the novella, however it was quite a point of discontent knowing that the story I was so enthralled in may or may not actually have been true. At the outset I was led to believe that the story I was reading was a work of non-fiction; now, I’m not sure what to classify this story as.

On another front, I would like to comment upon that fact, as if it wasn’t abundant enough already, that there is a significant amount of emotional distancing that goes on in this book. Whether it is intentional or not, it is certainly safe to say that one of the many things that the veterans carried with them was the burden of death, the emotional stresses of losing a loved companion, and the trouble memories of the events that took place during the war. It is not hard to deduce that one of the many themes of the book, if not the major theme, was that one of the heaviest things they carried were their own emotions. In line with the idea presented early during the first chapter that "the things they carried were determined largely by necessity", it is compellingly intriguing to consider that one of the most burdensome items they carried were the ones they needed the most, and at the same time there was a lot of effort on all the men’s parts to distance themselves as much as possible from it.