Introduction to Literature
Critical Analysis of Fiction paper

The Intangibles they carried
Every person has items one needs to carry but they are incomparable to that of a soldier. Tim O’Brien emphasizes this in his short story, “The Things They Carried” as he takes on the narrative role explaining what he observed of the soldiers he once fought alongside. Chronicling both the intensities and tragedies of war he tells the stories of fellow soldiers and reveals truths of war at the same time. In precise detail and intentional metaphorical language O’Brien describes what it is that each soldier carries and how that relates to them as an individual. While some are intangible, such as guilt and fear, others are specific physical objects, including matches and morphine. Simultaneously, he frames the struggles not only of each man but of the war in general and the shame and emotion involved. It is what he does not directly say but rather implies with his descriptions of each soldier that bring the deeper message to the surface. The detail and element of characterization Tim O’Brien uses to describe each soldier in “The things they carried” reveals the deeper meaning that the emotional baggage each soldier carries with them weighs upon them more heavily than the physical items, essentially interfering with their duties of war.
Jimmy Cross, the main character O’Brien highlights, appears to carry the most emotional baggage with him as the story opens explaining how he carries “the letters from a girl named Martha (274)”. The letters are not only symbolic of past emotions that he brings with him to war, but also of irony. Letters among all the other items he carries are the lightest, yet they weigh upon him so heavily. Along with his duty as a first lieutenant and platoon leader, “Jimmy Cross carried a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a .45 pistol that weighed 2.9 pounds fully loaded (277)”.All of these items are to assist him in his duties of war and to ensure that he can protect and navigate his fellow soldiers and fulfill his leadership position. A lieutenant, an obvious leader in war, though needs to be fully focused on his duties but Jimmy’s emotional baggage holds him back and interferes with his duties. As Lieutenant Cross gazed at the tunnel, “He was not there. He was buried with Martha under the white sand at the Jersey Shore (281)”. Extenuating the degree to which his emotional baggage weighed him down, his mind is with the girl he loves rather than with his fellow soldier who is near death. This is the turning point in which he realizes he needs to extinguish all distractions and carry only his physical items that will assist him in duty. His emotions not only interfere with his duty but with his mental state as “He felt shame. He hated himself. 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 I his stomach for the rest of the war (284)”. Shame was an intangible item each soldier had to carry with them as they continued on with their duties and while fighting with the pressure against them to be strong and never fail or let anyone down. Jimmy Cross was now carrying all of this but instead of revealing his weakness, he had to burry those thoughts into his head and put the war and his fellow soldiers to the forefront of his mind . Tim O’ Brien uses Jimmy’s character to reveal these truths that are central to all soldiers worldwide. A stigma surrounds soldiers just as they do many professions. This stigma has shaped how one views soldiers and the standard to which one holds them and characteristics one molds them into. The assumption and stigma in which Tim O’Brien is highlighting and bringing to the surface through this story is that all soldiers need to be stoic and strong at all times, never revealing their weaknesses but being strong and fighting for their country. The pressure placed on soldiers can bring them to their breaking point. The soldiers in “The Things they carried”, “For the most part carried themselves with poise, a kind of dignity. Now and then however, there were times of panic, when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn’t... (285)”. The poise is nothing but a mask for which they wear to hide the emotional baggage but this mask interferes with duties as they are constantly fighting the urge to remove the mask and release the feeling of fear or whichever emotion they need to relinquish. The emotions they carry are not strictly ones they bring to the war either but are emotional baggage they acquire through the war. In addition to the physical baggage they obtain when risking their lives at war, “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 (286)”. The intangibles they carried interfered with their ability to carry the tangible items essential for war and to fulfill their duties. It is their ability to compose themselves and carry these intangibles which truly defines them as strong. This emphasizes soldier’s honorability and reveals that “By and large they carried these things inside, maintaining the masks of composure (287)”. Again, Tim O’Brien uses these characters and descriptions of physical elements to emphasize how they interfere with their duties but in addition to highlight the internal conflict and mask each soldier wears. The duties of a soldier are essentially the only way to measure their “skill” or basis to rate their performance which again places an immense amount of pressure on them which is another intangible they carry. It is when these pressures and emotions interfere with their duties that their performance and skill can be criticized. They may look the part and carry the physical essentials but, “They had no sense of strategy or mission. They searched the villages without knowing what to look for, not caring, kicking over jars of rice, frisking children and old men, blowing tunnels, sometimes setting fires and sometimes not, then forming up and moving to the next village, the other villages, where it would always be the same. They carried their own lives. The pressures were enormous (283)”. The pressure which they carried distracted them from their duties to the extent at which they didn’t even know what to look for; their actions did not have a clear thought process behind them but rather allowing their emotional instability to guide them. Based off these concrete examples from the text the conclusion can be made that the emotional baggage each soldier carried with them in war was heavier than that of the physical items. It was then in return, their emotional baggage that interfered with their duties as soldiers. War can be looked at from various perspectives but it is with deep compassion that one must feel for soldiers as reflected in this short story of the physical and emotional baggage they must carry. Tim O’Brien assisted the reader in creating this perspective as a veteran of war sharing his true experiences allowing the reader to know this story and message is realistic, sincere and credible. The message conveyed also allows the reader to draw parallels to one’s own life as one has their own weight to carry both physically and emotionally. One’s emotions, often interfere with their daily lives and specific professions just as they did in war. Without the precise detail and element of characterization that Tim O’Brien used, the reader would not have been able to draw connections to their own life and found the deeper message.

O'Brien, Tim. "The Things They Carried." Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 274-89. Print.