CHRIS BLACKALL- tttc1

It's hard to know where to begin with this. I didn't really consider the title before I began reading. I mean it's only 4 words anyway, but after reading a few paragraphs this nonchalant opinion of the title changed. I have heard that soldiers carry heavy packs, but this book has already begun to put that into a new perspective. What one carries into war is partially a choice and partially a result of war experience. This book very quickly reminds the reader that what every person carries something into life with them, beyond physical possessions and experience. Perhaps what they carry is memory. The weight and the anchor- memory. This burden of memory is most clearly illustrated by Lieutenant Cross, a man burdened by both the deaths in his unit and the woman whom he "loves" back home. It is ironic, though, how it takes the death of Lavender to bring Cross back to his sense of duty. In other words, it takes death to bring Cross back to life. "Lieutenant Jimmy Cross reminded himself that his duty was not to be loved but to lead."A rather Machiavellian insinuation, but nonetheless, a good one.