Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried discusses the psychological effects of war on its subjects. The Author discusses the weight that each soldier carries, both tangible and intangible: “As a first lieutenant and platoon leader, Jimmy Cross carried a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a .45-caliber pistol that weighted 2.9 pounds fully loaded. He carried a strobe light and the responsibility of his men.” (O’Brien 330) 

This quotation sums up his discussion on both tangibles and intangibles accurately. He describes each of the men, what type of soldiers they were: a grunt, a medic, a machine gunner, etc. He talks about their specific gear that they bring with them, their guns and all of their equipment, and tells the reader how much their gear weights. They have their own specific weight as all tangible things do. The very last part of the quote gives an example of an intangible, “the responsibility of his men” (O’Brien 330). No physical weight can be designated to an intangible such as responsibility. The intangibles are what soldiers will carry with them for the rest of their lives, what they will bring home with them. As the story goes on O’Brien continues to give examples of the intangibles that the soldiers experience and must carry henceforth. 

Towards the end of the excerpt O’Brien gives further examples of intangibles: 

They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Greif, terror, love, longing these were the intangibles, but the intangible had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could not be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture. They carried their reputations. They carried the soldiers greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed and died, because they were scared not to. (O’Brien 338)   

These are the elements of war that take a toll on soldiers, the lasting ones. Fear, terror, watching men that have gone through all of this alongside you, die. These factors have emotional weight that affect a soldier, but there is no physical weight that can be attributed to them. These tangibles are the true dangers of war. The parts of the war that take grown men and break them down, some to points of no return. These intangibles change men. As O’Brien discussed, although ethereal, intangibles carry tangible weight. When he compares the intangibles to the tangibles, the reader sees that the intangibles outweigh the tangibles by a tremendous amount. 

Tim O’Brien did fight in Vietnam he experienced war firsthand and carried his own intangibles. However, this story is fiction, the soldiers and events are not real. However, the idea of intangible weight is a not far-fetched and every soldier will come out of war carrying their own intangible weight, just like they carried tangible weight while they were fighting. The keystone element in grasping the main idea of this excerpt is found in outside context. To truly grasp this idea of intangibles, more context is required. Context of these intangibles themselves, how they affect soldiers, where they originate.   

The first autobiography that I chose, was written by a Vietnam veteran named James T. Gillam, titled Life and Death in the Central Highlands : An American Sergeant in the Vietnam War, 1968-1970. Gillam was a college student at Ohio State university, who flunked out and was drafted in 1968. Like many other soldiers, at first he tried to veer from combat and avoid ending the lives of others. Though as the war went on he changed, he became a combat hardened soldier, killing and participating in deadly ambushes.  

When Operations Putnam Tiger and Panther ended, I had been in Vietnam for a month. It was an adjustment period during which I experienced most of the things common to infantry duty in Vietnam for the first time. I got mortared several times, and I learned to despise the random death of the explosions and the helplessness while waiting for the enemy to run out of shells. I heard that I had lost friends with whom I trained in the States. I cleared away dead bodies after a firefight, and then I went on my first combat patrols. I survived the first of many combat assaults, and I also killed a man face to face for the first time. A few days after that, I planned and carried out an ambush that killed five more men. I was also shot for the first time. (Gillam 76)

Another vivid illustration of the battlefield:

It started off when I shot a man in the chest and he was dragged off to die. The next day, I had a firefight inside an NVA base camp area. I got shot, hit by grenade shrapnel, and left behind to cover the cowardly flight of my machinegun team. Two days later, one of my best friends took three bullets in the chest while we sat shoulder to shoulder. He died. (Gillam 257)

What men must go through in a warzone is such a vigorous experience. They feel the most potent of emotions, dismal emotions, when men who they trained with and fought alongside violently die. Fear to the paramount degree. Helplessness, in the quotation Gillam talks about experiencing mortar bombings and having to accept that he many die, and the only thing he can do is wait until the enemy runs out of ammo. O’Brien’s idea of intangibles explains that it is not necessarily the experience which changes you, it is the things you take from these experiences, the intangibles. This recount of the war yields many events in which one would acquire countless intangibles. Lining up you rifle on an enemy in close quarters, clutching the trigger, then squeezing it, suddenly watching the life flow out of a man by your own hands. This would be an experience, but what you feel from that action, what remains stained in your memory, the guilt, the grief, are the intangibles. 

 Vietnam was marked as the first war to receive mass media coverage, which meant many reporters were sent to the battlefield. For my second source I read an autobiography by a reporter who was sent to Vietnam to cover the war. The autobiography, titled A Personal War in Vietnam, was written by journalist Robert Flynn. Flynn was only in the war-torn country for around two months, nonetheless he experienced the war at an intense degree. He illustrates a land covered in blood, bodies, and IEDs. Ambushes on a nightly basis, explosions happening left and right at all hours of the day. Men quickly dying or enduring potent suffering from detached limbs, their lives fading slowly to an inevitable end. Helicopters raining shells, while inducing death. He experienced war to its prime degree, and his experience is akin to many others. However, he also goes to talk about that after-effects of the ordeal. Flynn discloses his feelings at times on the battlefield, he speaks of robust fear, and helplessness. He goes on to explain how he still experienced that war after he returned to the US. 

I believe I was confirmed by my experience in Vietnam, although two decades later it is still not clear what was confirmed, and I was transformed, but in a way I had never imagined. I spent more time in the field with small combat units than some who did two or more tours in Saigon or Da Nang. Even so, I suffered an infinitesimal share of the fear, danger, and suffering of the men in those small combat units…. Nevertheless, and despite my limited experience, I am still affected by a wariness, a fear of being caught off guard. I still have nightmares, and incredibly, I have had a few flashbacks. (Flynn XII)

Flynn was only in Vietnam for two months, a fraction of most veterans; yet he still experienced enough action to change his psyche, to induce flashbacks and nightmares. He admits that after two decades he still has a fear of being caught off guard. This is a direct consequence of intangibles. What he remembers from these experiences, the feelings and memories that have altered his psyche. This represents the effects of the intangibles, rather than the cause behind them. 

So how do these two autobiographies influence Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried? Primarily, they help the reader get a better understanding of the main idea in the text, which is the intangibles that soldiers carry. Through James T. Gillam’s autobiography, the reader learns of the events that Vietnam soldiers had to go through. The hardships, grief, the constant fear, and helplessness felt in a warzone. The reader gets a better understanding of the events going on, a feel of real war. This context helps the reader not necessarily relate, but better understand the soldiers and their feelings. The text helps the reader understand the events they these men have, and will have to go through. Most importantly, Gillam’s autobiography reveals the source of the intangibles and why the events are significant enough to remain in their minds. A Personal War in Vietnam gives the reader a better understanding of the intangibles themselves. Flynn paints a picture of the war but also describes aspects such as his feelings, and destress during the time of the events he encountered. He illustrates more what intangibles are like rather than where they come from. Flynn also reflects on how these intangibles affected him later in life, decades after the war. He also provides the reader with context on why these intangibles are so significant, why they are still with him. 

Through Gillam’s autobiography the context the reader gains about where intangibles come from, and the events that brought them about. Through Flynn’s autobiography the reader gains better understanding of these intangibles, why they are so extensive, what they are like, and the emotions that are attributed with them. Collectively, the reader gains both understanding of where these intangibles come from and what exactly they are like. This context helps with the understanding of The Things They Carried because it gives a better understanding of the main idea behind the text. After reading the two biographies, the reader now has the context to better understand the characters, what they are going through, their surroundings, their hidden feelings, and the intangible baggage that they carry around. The reader gets a better idea as to the weight of intangibles.            
