The Things They Carry
“The Things They Carry”
Tangible Items
 Picture of Martha:
 “More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as
loved her” (1)
 Hope of a better life he may return to
 Reassures his humanity
 Poncho
 “each carried a green plastic poncho that could be used
as a raincoat or ground sheet or makeshift tent. With
its quilted liner, the poncho weighed almost 2 pounds,
but it was worth every ounce. In April, for instance,
when Ted Lavender was shot, they used his poncho to
wrap him up, then to carry him across the paddy, then
to life him into the chopper that took him away.” (3)
» Items convey deeper meaning and emotions for
soldiers
» Hope, fear, shame and guilt represented in items
Intangible Items
 “They carried their own lives. The pressures were enormous” (15).
 “-and for all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and
unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they
would never be at a loss for things to carry” (16)
• “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die.
Grief, terror, love, longing- these were intangibles, but the
intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had
tangible weight” (21).
– “Carry” metaphor for psychological burdens the soldiers had to carry
• no way to understand or rationalize death and killing
• Items contain meaning beyond immediate use
• intensifies the emotion felt
Intangible Items
• “They had no sense of strategy or mission. They
searched the villages without knowing what to
look for, not caring, kicking over jars of rice,
frisking children and old men, blowing tunnels,
sometimes setting fires and sometimes not, then
forming up and moving on to the next village, then
other villages, where it would always be the
same.” (15)
– Do not know why they are fighting
– War holds no importance for them
– Feel missions are pointless but must follow commander
Shame
• “He wished he could find some great sadness, or
even anger, but the emotion wasn’t there and he
couldn’t make it happen. Mostly he felt pleased to
be alive” (18).
• “They were afraid of dying, but they were even
more afraid to show it” (20).
– they carry guilt
– fear being a coward and others knowing it
– hide fear of death and relief of others’ deaths
Shame
• “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which
was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died,
because they were embarrassed not to. It was
what had brought them to war in the first place,
nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just
to avoid the blush of dishonor.” (21)
– Fight in war because ashamed not to
• Superiors, parents, government, peers
• Their mere presence in war makes them participants in the
deaths of other individuals
Ted Lavender
• “…then Ted Lavender was shot in the head
on his way back from peeing. He lay with
his mouth open. The teeth were broken.
There was a swollen black bruise under his
left eye. The cheekbone was gone. Oh
shit, Rat Kiley said, the guy’s dead. The
guy’s dead, which seemed profound- the
guy’s dead. I mean really.” (12-13)
– Realities of war
– Tone is blunt, matter-of-fact
– Emotionally numb to atrocities of war
Lieutenant Cross
• Reaction to Lavender’s death
 “Lt. Cross felt himself trembling. He tried not to
cry…He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved
Martha more than his men, and as a consequence
Lavender was now dead, and this was something he
would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the
rest of the war” (16).
 Feels he is negligent
 Something he will carry forever
Lieutenant Cross
• How it changes him
– “He was realistic about it. There was that new
hardness in his stomach. He loved her but he hated
her. No more fantasies, he told himself” (24).
• blames himself
• won’t happen again
• “…but Lieutenant Jimmy Cross reminder himself that
his obligation was not to be loved but to lead” (25-26).
– uses hate and anger to not feel emotion
– burns letters
– how experience has affected him mentally