Dimitri Stevens Interesting Things

In the book "The things they carried, by Tim O'Brien, the narrator describes what these soldiers carried and why.  Aside from weapons, food and personal necessities, the things that each person reflected what they were conscious about in life, like the ones more afraid running out of ammo would carry extra ammo, or how jimmy cross carried photos because he was in love.  Aside from the things they carried like dope, bandages, guns, souvenirs, books etc... something that they carried, discussed on page 19 of the online book i am referencing, they were said to carry "the land itself—Vietnam, the place, the soil
—a powdery orange-red dust that covered their boots and fatigues and
faces. They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the
humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they
carried gravity." These things, along with diseases, and infections, stood out from material things that they carry.
They introduced people, and they died shortly after the introduction, not allowing the reader to form a deep connection with that certain character, for example, Lavender.  O'Brien did a strange thing in the text, he kept mentioning lavender, things he carried before he was killed, or the phrase "smoking the dead mans dope," showing that the narrator hasn't quite killed these characters off, almost like providing back story.  In a way it could be read as grief, and failure to forget about the deceased.  A positive outlook on death in the passage was on page 21, after one of the guys said "We all got problems," another one replied "Not Lavender."  This is a brief moment in the passage but it ties into philosophy of death not harming people, and it frees them from future harm.