The Things They Carried - Rob McElhaney

The soldiers are carrying two separate lives with them, the one they lived back home, as well as the one the government has issued them. Each man carries different items that he finds suitable to get him through the war. Some bring along items that remind them of the comfort of home or carry an excessive amount of the weapons and ammo issued to help them feel safe. Lavender keeps medicinal items to keep him from feeling all together. The items they carry and the weight they keep on their backs symbolize the baggage they carry from being soldiers of war. The guilt they feel for the villages they burn or the men they bury builds and builds into a weight they carry in their minds that rivals what they carry on their backs. The weight just goes unmentioned as no one wants to talk about the pain they feel. They’ll experience a death or a mortar shower and brush it off cracking nervous one-liners on the outside while their crying within. Jimmy Cross had to dig himself a hole to hide in to feel able to let out any emotions he could not manage to keep inside. The civilian within these men yearns for a simple life and it shows in what they carry.  A pebble and pictures, comic books, candy, even pantyhose display a desire for something simple. Instead they carry heavy guns, sidearms, ammunitions, fragmentation grenades, claymores, helmets, shovels, MREs, and on and on. They want to carry on with their simple lives, but are forced to carry their country’s pointless war.