War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

The story “The Things They Carried” was written by Tim O’Brien, and it talks about soldiers in the Vietnam War and the things that they carried both physically and mentally. I really enjoyed this story because it was not that hard to relate to and it shows how hard war is on a man. It follows the transition of a man from loving and hopeful to hard. War changes a man forever and it is visible in this story and real life.
When the story started off it was talking of a women whom the Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from, a woman named Martha. Cross was very fond of Martha and had overwhelmingly strong feelings for her. He carried these letters from Martha and she never mentioned much about the war… except “Jimmy. Take care of yourself”

O’Brien follows a pattern of talking about Martha and then he goes on and writes about the things that the men actually carried. He enlightens us on the specific items that men with specific tasks carry. O’Brien writes common things people know like the medic carries medical supplies and the comms soldier carries the radio, and the bigger bulky man carries the M-60. While most of this is common knowledge O’Brien explicates and odd fact for each one of these, and that is how much they weighed. As I was reading I was beginning to wonder if he would ever talk about the emotional weight or rather he was alluding to it by talking about how much the men actually carried and this was very interesting to me. It reminded me of how war can make a man cold and closed off and I wondered if O’Brien was showing this in his writing by not outright expressing their inner emotions. As the story goes on he takes a break to write about Martha and Cross’ hopes for her. He tells of a date that Cross took Martha on and how he wished

It looks to be as if he is falling more and more in love with Martha, because she sends him a small pebble and he carries it everywhere and even puts it in his mouth to taste the sea salt. However, it slowly became clear that Lieutenant Cross was becoming more cold but the story becomes more expressive of what Cross is feeling. As the story continues Cross expresses his love and still daydreams about Martha, however he one day goes to the trench and puts the letters she sent him in a fire. He gets colder and starts to act more like a commander of his squadron, he also makes sure to pay attention more. As he thinks of Martha he just knows that she belongs somewhere else. Then he shuts the thoughts down and continues on. He becomes less expressive and starts to become more cold. This just shows how much war really changes a man from whom they use to be. Cross will never be the same and while it is not guaranteed or spoken directly on the other guys will likely become more cold but this is not evidence that everyone turns out this way. One man even wears his wife's panty hose as a neck cushion. Every person who goes to war changes. You can see that wa changes a man, even the most hopeful of men, lieutenant Cross, was broke down and hardened by