There is no tighter bond than that of soldiers during a time of war. The camaraderie and joint experiences only strengthen this relationship further. Specific to this novel, Tim O'Brien and the other men of his unit experienced the Viet Cong together.
From the start, weights are continually mentioned. Most of the first chapter, called "The Things They Carry", mentions the weight of gear and the sharing of the gear among the men, when weight became too much. From there, it moves on to discuss the weight of intangibles and how those intangibles were even more of a burden sometimes than the pounds of gear. No matter what weight is placed upon the shoulders of the soldiers, the fact that they experience these dilemmas and tragedies together helps to relieve some of the pressure.
It is apparent during the book that some of the men just are not build to uphold the pressure of the weight of duty and responsibility and gear and fear and emotion. These times reveal themselves through soldiers who simply lost their minds, such as Rat Kiley, or the men who carelessly wondered ahead, such as Curt Lemon. The ultimate result for these carefree attitudes and lack of mental stability leads to the same result: death. There are men who ventured over to the swamp and malaria country that should not have been there, due to an inability to uphold Newton's law of motion. By this, I mean that they could not provide an equal and opposite reaction to every action. I am trying to give the visual they that could not counterbalance the weights placed upon them.
I was actually utilizing the idea of weight and responsibility to help write an assignment for American conflict 2. It was interesting to see the ideas I incorporated because I personally believe that men feel the same from war to war. The assignment was to write a letter home from London to discuss personal feelings about the upcoming invasion and so on (we are talking of a time period of May-June 1944). All of the words and phrases and ideas that I presented in the letter could easily have been slightly altered and be a letter home from one of these soldiers in The Things They Carry. Every war is different. Every war is the same. Every soldier is different. Every soldier is the same. The idea of the lost generation could essentially be applied to any war with young soldiers, not just World War I. The majority of men drafted during wars are boys. They are in the best shape and have the least to lose because they are so young and have not been given the opportunity to start a life, yet. It is sad but the truth.
While further exhausting the idea of weight, I want to talk about the different tangible and intangible things the men, rather boys, carried. The whole opening chapter of this novel moves rapidly from the tangible to intangible. The men carry responsibility, guns, ammunition, experiences, emotions, radios, and the list continues infinitely. There are far too many things for one man to carry by himself. That is why all of the men work together in a unit. It is more efficient. The aspect of that chapter I found to be the most interesting was the listing of all the different weights. There would be discussion of the 3.4 pound comic books or the 45 pound radio (do not quote me on the exact weights) and then the stress of not knowing what could happen next. The next line would be about the 17.1 pound M-16 and miscellaneous pounds of extras men carried, then right in the middle of all of this, another intangible pops up. These two ideas are so intertwined in this chapter. It gives off a feeling that the soldiers' lives were so mixed with tangibles and intangibles, further complicating and adding to the weight of their lives.
Many people have stated that they feel betrayed that The Things They Carry is a fiction work, even though it is clearly stated everywhere in the novel. The most important aspect of the novel is that Tim O'Brien is able to force the reader to feel an emotional connection to the characters. The readers are able to feel these burdens and problems placed upon the shoulders of these young men. He is able to create an atmosphere in which the characters seem real. The responsibility and loss of innocence and becoming a man and seeing buddies blown up is all real, maybe not specifically the way he creates the characters in the book to experience it, but it is. The fact that he is able to get the commoners to understand all of the many issues and feelings and problems experienced by the men in combat is truly incredible. No one should be mad about that. He uses this idea of weight to describe situations to vivid that a reader is able to emotionally empathize and feel the weight, as well. That is what I call good writing.
The moral of the story is this: boys grow up to men under intense pressure and stress, childhood innocence is quickly lost, stress and experiences and emotions all can overwhelm and sometimes prove to be too much for men, and any time an author can create an emotional connection between a reader and the characters in the book, he/she is good. It is that simple and that complicated.
I was actually utilizing the idea of weight and responsibility to help write an assignment for American conflict 2. It was interesting to see the ideas I incorporated because I personally believe that men feel the same from war to war. The assignment was to write a letter home from London to discuss personal feelings about the upcoming invasion and so on (we are talking of a time period of May-June 1944). All of the words and phrases and ideas that I presented in the letter could easily have been slightly altered and be a letter home from one of these soldiers in The Things They Carry. Every war is different. Every war is the same. Every soldier is different. Every soldier is the same. The idea of the lost generation could essentially be applied to any war with young soldiers, not just World War I. The majority of men drafted during wars are boys. They are in the best shape and have the least to lose because they are so young and have not been given the opportunity to start a life, yet. It is sad but the truth.
While further exhausting the idea of weight, I want to talk about the different tangible and intangible things the men, rather boys, carried. The whole opening chapter of this novel moves rapidly from the tangible to intangible. The men carry responsibility, guns, ammunition, experiences, emotions, radios, and the list continues infinitely. There are far too many things for one man to carry by himself. That is why all of the men work together in a unit. It is more efficient. The aspect of that chapter I found to be the most interesting was the listing of all the different weights. There would be discussion of the 3.4 pound comic books or the 45 pound radio (do not quote me on the exact weights) and then the stress of not knowing what could happen next. The next line would be about the 17.1 pound M-16 and miscellaneous pounds of extras men carried, then right in the middle of all of this, another intangible pops up. These two ideas are so intertwined in this chapter. It gives off a feeling that the soldiers' lives were so mixed with tangibles and intangibles, further complicating and adding to the weight of their lives.
Many people have stated that they feel betrayed that The Things They Carry is a fiction work, even though it is clearly stated everywhere in the novel. The most important aspect of the novel is that Tim O'Brien is able to force the reader to feel an emotional connection to the characters. The readers are able to feel these burdens and problems placed upon the shoulders of these young men. He is able to create an atmosphere in which the characters seem real. The responsibility and loss of innocence and becoming a man and seeing buddies blown up is all real, maybe not specifically the way he creates the characters in the book to experience it, but it is. The fact that he is able to get the commoners to understand all of the many issues and feelings and problems experienced by the men in combat is truly incredible. No one should be mad about that. He uses this idea of weight to describe situations to vivid that a reader is able to emotionally empathize and feel the weight, as well. That is what I call good writing.
The moral of the story is this: boys grow up to men under intense pressure and stress, childhood innocence is quickly lost, stress and experiences and emotions all can overwhelm and sometimes prove to be too much for men, and any time an author can create an emotional connection between a reader and the characters in the book, he/she is good. It is that simple and that complicated.
