Response to "The Things They Carried"

I really like the story “The Things They Carried.” I thought it was an excellent first look at literary fiction. The story was informative and good even though there is no certain category the story could be put in. I liked that it wasn’t some sappy war love story where the soldier and girlfriend were so wrapped up in one another that the essence of the war is lost, which tends to happen in so many war stories. In this short story the phrase “The things They Carried” is used through out to describe the items the soldiers carried in their bags during certain times during the war from ammunition, to food, to items used for a bit of free time. Not only does O’Brian list the items carried, but also the weight of the items, demonstrating the kind of physical burdens each soldier had to bear. Also, each soldier carried something different based on his own individual size, which I think makes the story more realistic because he didn’t have them all carrying the same gun just for the hell of it. O’Brian also demonstrated the kind of mental burdens the soldiers had to carry, fear of being killed, prejudices, long lost loves. I like how even though there are 2 soldiers primarily mentioned, the other soldiers share equal (though smaller) parts of the story with out weighing the story down. I like how O’Brian only provided brief accounts of Martha, treating her as one of the ghosts he said the soldiers carried. Even though Martha was a physical being she proved to be a serious mental burden more than she proved to be a comfort. I also like the use of the constant reference to the death of Ted Lavender, because it shows that the speaker whole frame of mind is based on a time line center around his passing indicating how this is a mental burden for him to carry.