Interpretation: "The Things They Carried"

This paper is dedicated to Thomas Winkler. I never had the blessing of knowing you Grandpa, but I am truly blessed for all that you have carried for our family and country. I love you.
December 7, 1941 is a day that will live in infamy. It was the first attack against our country where Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor. Thousands of soldiers lost their lives and thousands more came from it when the US declared war on Japan. Soldiers were drafted and put in a place with memories that will always weigh them down. Today is the 68th anniversary of that disastrous day, a day that will forever be imbedded in the mind of every American who was alive on that day. My grandpa was one of the brave soldiers who went to battle at Iwo Jima. What he saw, he never talked about. It hurt too much. There was mention from my dad that he was there when his best friend was blown up; this was one of the many things that he carried on him for the rest of his life. To his dying day he refused to eat or buy anything Japanese. The war memories that he carried on himself had a lasting impact on his family and the duration of his life. His sons followed in his footsteps 25 years later when they served in the Vietnam War. “The Things They Carried” gave me somewhat of an idea of what my Grandpa and Uncles had experienced during Vietnam.
This story revolves around Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his soldiers. It goes on to talk about the things they carried. For example, Jimmy Cross was head over heels in love with Martha from back home. He carried her letters as if they were a part of him. He lived and breathed those letters. “He would sometimes taste the envelope flaps, knowing her tongue had been there, more than anything he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her. “ These letters represented his dream world; his “would have been” if he wasn’t in the trenches fighting for her freedom. Clutching those letters to his chest was like holding on to something that wasn’t in reach of his fingertips. He needed something to hold onto while his whole world around him was crumbling. Jimmy was not the only one who carried something so close to his heart. Henry Dobbins carried extra rations. Dave Jensen carried his toothbrush, dental floss, soap, three pairs of socks and foot powder. Mitchell Sanders carried condoms. Norman Baker carried his diary. Rat Kiley carried comic books. Kiowa a devout Baptist carried an illustrated New Testament Bible and before Ted Lavender died he carried tranquilizers and dope.
These were the very first things mentioned in what the soldiers carried. It didn’t go into the infantry they carried at first, no it talked about the personal things close to them. When I read the different kinds of the things that the soldiers carried with them it had really pulled at my heart because I didn’t just see them as another statistic on the battlefield. Instead they represented the quarterback of the football team, or the rambunctious neighbor down the road. These were everyday people who had loved comic books and carried condoms in their wallet. They had families and friends who loved and were waiting behind for them.
What kinds of memories did these soldiers carry when they were on the battlefield? In the beginning of the story the soldiers were spoken of like the neighborhood boys. Ted Lavender was talked about as if he was still a part of them. It casually mentioned how he happened to get shot in the head. As if this was just a normal thing of war which it is, but at the same time they pull the reader into the emotion on the battlefield because they talked of Ted like a brother. However the story of Ted represents the horror and death faced in Vietnam. “Kiowa, who saw it happen, said it was like watching a rock fall, or a big sandbag or something--- just boom, then down—not like the movies where the dead guy rolls around and does fancy spins and goes ass over tea kettle—not like that Kiowa said, the poor bastard just flat fell. Boom. Down. Nothing else.” This is the climax where everything else goes downhill. Death tends to do that to people. You have to stop and rethink what could have been or how it could have been prevented. As the man in charge, it was Jimmy Cross’s responsibility to make sure everything was in order. Not only did he carry letters and pictures from Martha but he carried the responsibility for the lives of his men. Yet all he could look at was the pebble. For this pebble was his good luck charm from Martha. “It was a simple pebble, an ounce at most. Smooth to the touch, it was a milky-white color with flecks of orange and violet, oval shaped, like a miniature egg…she had found the pebble on the Jersey shore-line, precisely where things came together but also separated. It was this separate but together quantity; she wrote that inspired her to pick up the pebble.” This pebble interprets the common denominator between both worlds. It doesn’t fit in her world, but at the same time it doesn’t fit in his either. This is the relationship between Martha and Jimmy. She cannot take the idea of being with someone who is thousands miles away in a whole other world instead she is safe in her own world made up of college and bike rides. It cannot fit into his world either because the things that he faces everyday could never be properly conjoined to her world. They were the pebble balancing on the shoreline, the blurry line that isn’t clear if it’s on the beach or in the water.
The death of Lavender represented the death of the dreams and desires Jimmy had for Martha. It was from this daydreaming that had killed Lavender. It was from him wishing to be in another world, another reality that took the bullet to Lavender’s head. Jimmy dug himself a hole deep enough to burn every ounce of longing and love for Martha. Still he knew, “Lavender was dead, you couldn’t burn the blame.” Yet this was something that he needed to prove to himself that he was burying it once and for all, that his dream world consisting of love was dead to him. It was nonexistent. His reality was Vietnam and carrying the responsibility for the lives of his men.
“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. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture.” The Things they Carried” was one of the most influential and heartbreaking stories I have ever read. It gave me such a broader insight on what the soldiers really do carry. These soldiers represent any kind of soldier that has fought for our freedom. They long for a Martha who will write them letters and send them pictures with the glance of a life that is out of reach to them. For Jimmy, “he was just a kid at war, in love.” Interpreting this story to find the hidden meaning behind didn’t just give me an appreciation of what these soldiers went through. It also took me into the life of every soldier that has served for our freedom. It brings me to tears imagining the sort of things these soldiers had to carry on them even for the duration of their life. I will never know the extent of the painful memories they had to endure. What I do know is that on this 68th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, I will thank my fellow veterans for all they have carried for me, for my freedom. I will look into their faces and see the face of my grandpa who endured so much at Iwo Jima and yet he never let the burden of what he carried fall on anyone else. “They shared the weight of memory. They took up what others could no longer bear.” I am truly in awe of these soldiers because just from what I read has already put me on my knees, thanking God for giving us these soldiers who carried the burdens of war so that we will have our freedom.