responce essay the things they carried
“The Things They Carried” By Tim O’ Brien
This short story is about a young lieutenant that learns the hard way that war can cause serious consequences. While reading this story I got really bored with the way the author names every single thing they carried. I honestly didn’t see the importance of knowing exactly what they were carrying. It was kind of just annoying to me until I read the story all the way through and I realized how important it really was to name all the things the soldiers carried throughout the war emotionally and physically. In the story these soldiers were effected emotionally in a great way. In story states, "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. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice.... Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to." In this quote we can see their fears and their happiness through these things. The way they couldn’t just get over the tragedies and terrors of war, their beliefs, the things that pull them apart and the things that bound them together. It really made me feel how emotional they felt in this troubling time whether it as good or bad. In addition to the emotional burdens they had physical burdens as well. A few things the author noted that they had it sates “ A letter, a photograph, a bible, the drugs, condoms, comic books, a pair of moccasins.. ect. ” All of their personal property really showed you how they lived their normal lives outside of the war. These personal items that they carried helped them remember that and get through the hard times of the war.
This short story is about a young lieutenant that learns the hard way that war can cause serious consequences. While reading this story I got really bored with the way the author names every single thing they carried. I honestly didn’t see the importance of knowing exactly what they were carrying. It was kind of just annoying to me until I read the story all the way through and I realized how important it really was to name all the things the soldiers carried throughout the war emotionally and physically. In the story these soldiers were effected emotionally in a great way. In story states, "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. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice.... Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to." In this quote we can see their fears and their happiness through these things. The way they couldn’t just get over the tragedies and terrors of war, their beliefs, the things that pull them apart and the things that bound them together. It really made me feel how emotional they felt in this troubling time whether it as good or bad. In addition to the emotional burdens they had physical burdens as well. A few things the author noted that they had it sates “ A letter, a photograph, a bible, the drugs, condoms, comic books, a pair of moccasins.. ect. ” All of their personal property really showed you how they lived their normal lives outside of the war. These personal items that they carried helped them remember that and get through the hard times of the war.