The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, is the story of a squadron of American soldiers in the Vietnam war where the title really says it all.  The piece focuses mostly on the things that the members of the squad carry and the obsessive love their captain has for a girl back home.  But throughout the story there is one unwavering feature. The word “carry”.  Repeated several dozen times throughout the piece as O’Brien describes the countless trinkets, weapons, and personal items that the men carry with them. But it's not only used to describe physical things. O’Brien uses this repetition to describe the physical weight, emotional weight, and the weight of the responsibility that they have to carry with them through the war. This repetition is important because it helps show the cumulative weight on the men in this squadron and what they were going through. 

O’Brien goes into great detail about every ounce of gear, personal belongings, and superstitious trinkets the squad carries with them, as it all slowly adds up to an unimaginable burden.  He describes every piece all the way down to the “lucky pebble” Lieutenant Cross carried in his mouth, and always uses the word “carry” to show the building of the great weight on the backs of these men. But it wasn't just equipment that these men had to physically carry through the jungle. They had to carry the elements of Vietnam like “the soil… the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay” (O’Brien 8) they carried all of it. But the country loaded more onto their bodies then just rain and heat there were also more dangerous things, like “they carried malaria... dysentery” “ringworm and lice” (O’Brien 8). The repetition of the word carry throughout the story helps the reader remember the countless other things these men are carrying with them through the jungle. 

The weight the soldiers physically carry on their backs isn’t close to the emotional load they had to carry. Arguably the heaviest emotional toll was the fear of death, and restraining the urge to “run or freeze or hide” (O’Brien 11) as danger and enemies lurked around every corner. Always worrying and keeping on guard, never giving them a second to remember better times or who they used to be. The squad “carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die” (O’Brien 11) always thinking of regrets and things they wish they could have done before they died. But it wasn’t just the thoughts of being killed that they had to carry, but the thoughts of those they had to kill. Forced to carry around the thoughts of dead fifteen year old enemies and fallen friends as well, they slowly became desensitized to it and the line between right and wrong became blurred as they did what they had to to survive. No one had to carry a heavier emotional toll then Lieutenant Cross who carried his love for Martha, which burdened him heavily through the jungles of Vietnam.  Carrying something was “to hump it” and “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps” (look this up) of Vietnam. He carried it for a long time until he realized that he could not carry his responsibility to his men and his love for Martha at the same time. He had to make a decision, and decided that he was going to take on full responsibility for his squad and leave Martha behind. 

Lieutenant Cross isn’t the only one who carries responsibilities with him.  Every member of the squad carries a responsibility to their country, a responsibility to carry out orders, and the responsibility to kill. They were ordered kill and to march through minefields and crawl through rat infested tunnels, and “they just shrugged and carried our orders” (O’Brien 5) knowing it was part of the weight that they had to endure.  Knowing they had to leave pieces of themselves behind because carrying the mind of a killer and your old self at the same time was almost impossible. So they were forced to leave old morals, old loves, and old memories in order to carry a machine gun and be able to kill and be killed.

One of the most powerful representations of the great weight the men had to carry is shown in the death of Ted Lavender. Rat Kiley describes Ted Lavenders dead body falling “like cement” as all the weight of his gear, his fears, and his responsibilities fall with him. Plopped dead in the dirt as the weight of the war became too much, and all the weight he carried fell with him. 

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, is the story of a squadron of American soldiers in the Vietnam war where the title really says it all. The things that the soldiers had to carry were unimaginable and O’Brien does a great job keeping track of the toll overall emotional toll on the men by constantly repeating the word “carry”. Repeated several dozen times throughout the piece as O’Brien describes the countless trinkets, weapons, and personal items that the men carry with them. But it's not only used to describe physical things. O’Brien uses this repetition to describe the physical weight, emotional weight, and the weight of the responsibility that they have to carry with them through the war. This repetition is important because it helps show the cumulative weight on the men in this squadron and what they were going through. 
