Heavy Load In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

The same five days of the week, every week, for all four weeks in the month, and for six months until the semester ends, I carry a heavy load. Yes, a literal heavy load of the necessary texts and notes that I use every single day that cause my back and shoulders to ache. But I also carry a load much heavier than any school necessity I put in my bag, to be more clear - I am speaking about the heavy load that gravity weighs down in the back of my mind at all times. The hauntingly heavy load that never seems to lighten up is filled with more than just class meetings, tutor sessions, and study hall. It is the stress of my future that further weighs me down. I carry the unforgiving load of a full-time student with a high-demand schedule that requires

This weight has a way of finding its way in and forcing its way into my dreams, almost as if it's determined to further burden me as I lay my head down to sleep. Never a moment away, never a moment to escape from myself nor from my families placed expectations. Though I am burdened with this seemingly infinite and endlessly heavy load, in these nightmares I can still look toward the future for hope. In the short story “The Things They Carried,” author, Tim O’Brien unforgettably describes through the character Lieutenant Cross and his fellow soldiers that the weight of the intangible things we carry outweigh and burden us more than the weight of the physical things we

He had to stay focused and not allow any further deaths in his platoon. Soldier Lavender’s death was the wake-up call that Cross needed in order to command his troops. Unfortunately, for the soldiers in the platoon 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.” (O’Brien 14) This quote from the passage tells of the moral of the platoon. It was low, these men wanting no more to do with the war and only wanting to return home. These soldiers were inexperienced and not by choice, had been drafted into the war. It was their experience with Lieutenant Cross that they will not forget, the shared experience is one they all must carry after the war. The remaining survivors had no choice except to carry the burdens of grief, guilt, and pain. Even decades after the war, Cross remained burdened by the gravity of guilt, unable to forgive