"The things they carried were largely determined by necessity.."(1036). In the short stoy of Tim O'Brien "The thing they carried", First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross' platoon was filled with a motley of characters. Among the platoon there was Henry Dobbins, Dave Jensen, Ted Lavender, Mitchell Sanders, Kiowa, Rat Kiley, Lee Strunk, and Norman Bowker. All the soilders carried many things, things that depended on necessity, superstition, and comfort, among other things.
It was a nescessity and standard operating procedure for the men to carry rifles, body armor, ammunition, and food for basic survival. Other things they carried varied from soilder to soilder. Lietenant Jimmy Cross carried two pictures, many letters, and a pebble that were sent to him from a girl namd Martha. Along with these things associated with Martha came a small amount of physical weight as well as a large amount of emotional weight. Lieutenant Cross also carried the emotional weight of the safety and well being of his platoon. After Ted Lavender was shot dead the emotional weight of Lieutenant Cross became too much to carry thus having to leave his emotional burdans for Martha behind. Not much is told about what Martha thinks of Lieutenant Cross in th story, the only information about Martha is what Lieutenant Cross thinks about her.
Kiowa carried a Bible, His grandfather's feathered hachet, and carried emotional burdans of his mixed heritage. Ted Lavender carried tranquilizers and premium dope. It is possible that Lavender had a difficult time coping with his emotional burdans and used drugs as a catalyst to forget his problems. Henry Dobbins carried comfort food and the hose of his girlfriend around his neck. Rat Kiley carried comic books and M&Ms. For most of the soilders they all carried something that describes a part of them and which held significant value to them.
Different operations called for speical equipment for the men to carry, during the tunnel clearing mission, the men carried multiple heavy explosives. The tunnel mission also required one of the men to crawl into the tunnel to search it out before they planted their explosives. During the time one of the men were searching the tunnel the rest of the men carried the emotional burdan of the life of th soilder that was searching the tunnel.
Different people have different burdans and cope with those burdans differently. In the story O'Brien relates war to life and how the experiences you go through and how you handle those experiences make up who you are, changing you for the better or worst. Lieutenant Cross went through the experience of having one of his men die, forcing him to change his personality to become a better commanding officer for his men.
I definitely know what your thesis is, and you did prove your point..You were very specific with naming the specific characters...good job, but maybe you could add a little more to it. (only a minor suggestion)
ReplyDeleteI like the overall essay, and i identified your thesis. i also like how you identified the characters from the story. But you could do a little more. Good job!!
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