O’Brien starts the novel by listing
tangible objects the soldiers carried—from guns and helmets to letters and
drugs, all of which are tangible items that they need to “hump.” O’Brien’s choice to almost monotonously
list every item makes the reader feel weighed down as well. He then progresses into the abstract ideas
and thoughts that weigh on the men. By
describing intangible ideas like worry, love, embarrassment, pride, etc. as
objects to be “carried,” the reader suddenly associates them with actual
weight, making them seem that much heavier.
O’Brien says the soldiers “carried
all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible
power of the things they carried” (7). A
few pages later he continues by saying that among all the unknowns of war,
“there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a
loss for things to carry”(15). From
these quotes I gather that the weight we carry is the weight of our lives. The more we live, the more we add to our load,
a load that becomes inescapable. There
is something horribly daunting about this ever-growing weight we can’t avoid. We can’t lessen it, but we can decide how to
balance it. We can pick and choose what
weighs us down. In answering the
question what am I reading for in this text?
I am reading to find out how these characters, who have seen and endured
so much, cope with their loads—how they choose to handle the things they carry.
I completely agree with the idea that the things they carried weren't just tangible, that the more burdensome things were the emotional weights and the trials that they all had to withstand. However, I am not sure I quite agree with you when you say that they can pick and chose what weighs them down. It is possible for some people to adjust and lift these burdens off. However, some people are probably incapable of getting over and working around the scars that they got in the war (mental scars). For example, the quote that says, "The bad stuff never stops happening : it lives in its own dimension replaying itself over and over." This shows that sometimes it's not that easy for them to 'get over' or chose to push it aside.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with the both of you that the weight that these men have to uphold while they endure this war is unimaginable. However, I think the quote that Hannah brought up actually shows the good side of having things to carry. It is a small consistency in their very ambiguous lives. In Vietnam, there was constant danger and fear. A situation could change drastically in the blink of an eye, and people could die without you even seeing it happen. The one thing these men are sure of is that they will always have things to carry. Sometimes, even if they feel as though their loads are only making the war more difficult, the things they carry may bring them great comfort, possibly by reminding them of home, or reminding them that they are human, and not just a player in this huge, ambiguous war.
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