Things They Carried

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War causes an entrance to a new world that to many seems nothing like the old. The life they held is now gone, which bring these men nothing but a charge of new worries and emotions. In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”, also known as the first chapter, is a captivative, up close story about the soldiers in the Vietnam War. Many soldiers do not want to be there and many are young as well.The first chapter connects to the title by stating the things the men carried. O’Brien not only lists the items they took on their duty, but demonstrates the emotional baggage that lies heavy in their hearts. Each item the soldier carries,holds a fear of love, rejection, embarrassment, and family. People never reveal their fear easily to someone, they …show more content…
The soldiers held fear through a photograph of a loved one. As O’Brien starts introducing Cross more in depth, he states how “almost everyone humped photographs”.O'Brien also describes that “in his wallet, Lieutenant Cross carried two photographs of Martha” (O’Brien, 4) The photos are considered as the doors to the soul. They are valuable belongings as the quote states they get everyone “humped", because they remind the soldiers of what they have left behind as their family members, partners and friends and give them an incentive to keep going and with luck, survive the war but make them weak as well. The fact that Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries two photographs of Martha in his wallet, reveals the true extent of his love for her.He considers her an important part of his life, an incentive to come back, so important that he needs to have her with him, even in the worst times, as war is a place with violence and the still photographs helps him get rid of the fear of dying. Other than that, the fear that is always there in him is about if the Martha truly loves him or will it be too late if he survives and goes back to her as she will find someone else. Their fear leads the soldiers in carrying many “things” close to them. They carried all the things “they could bare, and then some, including a
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