In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien shows how soldiers in the Vietnam War not only carry heavy physical loads, but also carry even heavier emotional loads. In this essay I will be examining how the Vietnam War affected soldiers and how they responded to the war. I chose this particular essay because veteran’s day is coming up and it made me think of all the brave men and women of our country who sacrificed so much in this war, even if they didn’t agree with it. 

The beginning of this passage in the Carolina Reader starts off by introducing Jimmy Cross. Cross is a lieutenant who is in charge of a small group of men. Their job is to move from village to village destroying everything in their path. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries letters from a college girl named Martha who he is in love with. However, the Martha doesn’t love him and this constantly distracts him. While he is distracted, thinking about Martha, one of his men, Ted Lavender, was shot dead while using the bathroom. Cross blames himself for Ted Lavender’s death and cannot escape the guilt. Due to this guilt he begins to forget about Martha and starts focusing on his squad. I believe this change in the way Lieutenant Jimmy Cross leads his squad portrays the transition from innocence to adulthood. A lot of people go into war as innocent children and come out as hardened adults. This applies especially to wars where countries use drafts to build an army. In the United States during the time of the Vietnam war all men who were eighteen years of age and up were required by law to sign up for the draft. 

Signing up for the draft meant that on any given day you could be notified that you were now enlisted in the United States military and if you didn’t join you would be legally punished. The draft for the Vietnam War gave the United States military a plethora of young, innocent, inexperienced soldiers who were not ready for war. Most of the soldiers were physically ready. They were well fed, exercised, and had medical evaluations. But many soldiers were not ready for war emotionally. A lot of the soldiers did not even agree with what they were fighting for, but they fought anyway to avoid legal repercussions, dishonor, and just because everyone else their age was doing the same thing. Some soldiers agreed with what they were fighting for, but they just were not mentally prepared for going to war. These young soldiers were soon exposed to things that basic training could have never prepared them for. The Vietnam War was an extremely gory and violent war. The Vietcong would use guerilla warfare by planting booby traps throughout the war zone. These traps would devastate the United States infantry. Young, innocent soldiers saw more violence than they ever could have imagined. They saw their friends and fellow soldiers die, innocent civilians die, and had to live with the fear of death while knowing there was not much to do to avoid it.  To cope with the hardships of war these young soldiers would do various things to distract them and keep their hopes up. Some chose to carry along physical good luck charms such as a cross or bible, pictures of their loved ones, or reminders of their life back home. Some men chose to distract themselves by using marijuana and other drugs. Vietnam had the highest rate of drug use in any United States war in history. This fact can be attributed to the drug filled culture of the 1960s and the large supply of narcotics in Vietnam at the time of the war. This high drug use among soldiers caused many men to go back home carrying something they didn’t want, an addiction. The high drug use rate of United States soldiers in the Vietnam War correlates to the high number of homeless Vietnam Veterans. This War produced the largest number of homeless veterans in American history. Soldiers would come home from war and feel unwanted because many people publicly ridiculed the war and even the soldiers fighting in the war. These soldiers would go back to what comforted them in Vietnam: drugs. Some soldiers chose to distract themselves from the war by constantly thinking about loved ones like Jimmy Cross. He carries the thought of his loved one, Martha, with him until the end of the text. While his love of Martha distracts him (and makes him forever guilty of the death of his soldier), it comforts him and gives hope.  No matter how they did it almost all soldiers found some way to distract themselves from the hardships of war. The Things They Carried does a great job of showing the various ways in which soldiers would distract themselves with physical objects and psychological thoughts. 

The Vietnam War was so stressful on the soldiers that they would rely on various forms of distraction to keep their sanity and hopes up. The Things They Carried shows how soldiers carry good luck charms, use drugs, and think of loved ones to distract themselves from the fear of injury and death. It also shows the audience how soldiers carried more than just their physical possessions. Many soldiers carried drug addictions, depression, PTSD, etc. I believe the emotional weight is much heavier than the physical weight in war.  