The title of this novel, along with the title of the first chapter, creates an uneasy sense of understanding for the reader. The things that the soldiers in this novel carry are described by O'Brian as physical objects such as weapons, clothing, and drugs. Behind the scenes however are the things the men truly carry; the mental strain, the feelings of loneliness, and numerous other hardships that come along with a time at war.
The best example is that of First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross; he had to deal with the hardship of being away from his forbidden love Martha. Martha is beauty, she is innocence, in a way Martha is America. All the men carry feelings similar to those of Lieutenant Cross and within that fact lies the first misleading detail from narrator O'Brian. These men sacrifice their lives for the good of what they are fighting for and what they are fighting for is what they will willing die for. Whether that is their family, their love, or their own lives it is all the underlying details of the truth that they fight for their country and they carry with them the thought of their homeland where ever they march.
O'Brian successfully tells us a physical story that is easy to understand and comprehend but at the same time hides details beneath the surface the signal the true meaning of hardship for the men of the Alpha company. So even before you open the first page you are already thrown into a world of illusions just from reading the title. This gives the reader and unsettling feeling from the get-go which could only lead to an entire novel of facts that one will second guess at every turn. I cannot help but get the feeling that throughout this novel I will be reading two stories, one that is written down in words and another that is inbetween the lines written by narrator O'Brian.
We talked in class about how most of O’Brien’s war stories are manufactured or exaggerated; therefore, the only truth we have left in the story is O’Brien’s communication of the emotions people feel in war. Likewise, it makes sense that the connotation of "The Things They Carried" is that the soldiers carried a great deal of emotional baggage. That emotional baggage, despite all the other massive and weighty objects soldiers bore, results in being the heaviest burden of all.
ReplyDeleteO’Brien points out why those emotional burdens are the hardest to carry; there is no way to get rid of them. He mentions how soldiers often can and will throw away their rations in order to ease their load. O’Brien contrasts this ability with Lieutenant Cross’s realization that he can never cast aside the burden of guilt he carries for the loss of Ted Lavender, the soldier who died on Cross’s watch. This is the burden that will never leave him, it will always weigh him down.
I think O’Brien writes the story with this undertone of emotion to illustrate to readers the enormous effect that war has on soldiers' psyches. Many people often think of war in physical terms, with explosions and violence. People often downplay the influence of war on a soldier’s character, thoughts and emotions.