Physical and Emotional Burdens During War

Physical and Emotional Burdens During War

Just like Atlas carries the world on his shoulders, many soldiers can feel the same burden on their lives while in war. During the Vietnam War, many soldiers are in their late teens and early twenties, and often bring emotionally significant items with them to remind them of home. These items, along with the physical objects they were required to carry, create a large amount of baggage they had to bring with them all throughout the war. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien establishes the central metaphor for the entire novel by showing the physical and emotional baggage that the soldiers carries with them in the war.

Lieutenant Jim Cross, in addition to having to bring along his standard issue gear, carries objects that may not be physically heavy, but still have a heavy weight on his emotions. He brings along items that remind him of his love for Martha, which helps him take his mind off of the war and into a happier place and time. Although, unfortunately for Lieutenant Cross, in the case of Ted Lavender, this love and daydreaming about Martha may have contributed to a heavier emotional burden. “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” (O’Brien 16).

Lieutenant Jim Cross carries with him, photos of Martha, Martha’s Letters, and a lucky pebble that she gave him, which he often carries in his mouth. He carries these items because he misses and loves Martha and wants to keep her with him, while he is away at war. These letters and articles also help him forget about the situation that he is in, and he daydreams about what life could have been like if he was back at home with her. Furthermore, the pebble reminds him of Martha and how he feels about her. Lieutenant Cross would carry the pebble in his mouth and daydream about the Jersey shore and life back home instead of the Jungle and dirt of Vietnam. This would make him feel loved and free, two things that he most certainly did not feel in Vietnam. Lastly, one of the biggest weights he carries with him is the responsibility for the lives of his men. This weight is exceptionally heavy, because he feels he is the one who is responsible if any of his troops get injured or killed. When one of his men, Ted Lavender, gets shot and killed, Jim feels it is his fault because right before Ted died, he was daydreaming about Martha and did not focus his full attention on his surroundings and his platoon. Because he feels so guilty, and blames himself and Martha for Ted’s death, he burns Martha’s letters. Even with the destruction of these reminders of Martha, Lieutenant Cross gains the additional emotional burden of Ted Lavender’s death in its place. Lieutenant Cross gives up his happy memories and daydreams of the woman he loves, so he can be a better platoon leader for his troops. He replaces one heavy emotional burden with one that is arguably even bigger and more substantial, one that outweighs the weight of his gear, the love for his troops.

Lieutenant Jim Cross is not the only one in his platoon who was laden with heavy emotional and physical burdens during the war; many of his troops such as Kiowa and Henry Dobbins carry sentimental items with them as well. Each soldier carries physical items that remind him of the life that he left behind, and the life that he wants to get back to. These items may not physically have a lot of weight, but emotionally, they carry a sizeable load. “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”(O’Brien 21). Both Kiowa and Henry Dobbins, along with their standard gear, carry little trinkets that reminded them of home. Kiowa brings with him an illustrated New