Necessity In The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried

“They carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives…carried rations…carried a toothbrush.”(2)
In this excerpt, from O’Brien’s book “The things they Carried”, the word “carried” is repeated throughout, to emphasize the importance of essential items the soldiers brought with them to war. “Pocket Knives” emphasizes that these soldiers are taking the responsibility of becoming a man and the fact that they will soon be taking another man’s life in war. The author only states the physical weights of what they carried in war but later talks about the emotional burden that these soldiers carried. This motif of weight or heaviness burden is carried throughout this novel. I could connect this to a camp I went to when I was in 5th grade. Just like the soldiers in the novel, I gathered almost every essential item there was to be safe and survive in the wilderness.

Spin

“Step out of line, hit a mine; follow the dink,

Elongated and narrow, like pieces of blackened leather”(110)
Mark Fossie’s girlfriend “Mary anne” had gone insane, after she experienced war at its harshest. She ran off alone in the wilderness and was found by the group of soldiers. Mark Fossie was shocked when Mary Anne was wearing a “necklace of human tongues”, the author uses gruesome imagery to scar reader’s mind of what war does to an individual over time. “Pieces of blackened leather” Depicts a disgusting image in the reader’s mind of long dried tongues hanging from a necklace. Mary Anne is a symbol of war and what it can cause or change permanently. The innocent American girl was changed forever.

The Man I Killed

“His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a start-shaped hole, his eyebrows were thin and arched like a