This story is set during the American involvement in the Vietnam War and, as the title suggests, is preoccupied with “the things they carried” – all the items of military equipment and personal keepsakes that the American infantrymen carry with them on patrol. Because they are infantrymen, they walk everywhere, and what they can carry is limited by its weight and their ability to carry it. O’Brien also makes clear that the men carry not only physical objects, but memories, hopes and fears – all the emotional baggage of their past lives in the USA. In terms of narrative the story centers, and keeps returning to the death of Ted Lavender, which was caused by a failure of leadership on the part of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Cross fails because of what he carries with him which proves to be a distraction, and this distraction causes Lavender’s death. The central idea of this story is that a person in a leadership position should focus on his responsibilities rather than distractions and obsessions; if a leader loses touch with his obligations, the consequences could be severe.
The central character of the story is indicated by the title: the things they carried, which are far more important than any human character. O’Brien signals their importance not just through his title but also through the sheer number of words he devoted to these inanimate objects. Of course, most of what they carry is essential for their own survival – weapons, ammunition and medical kits; Lieutenant Cross carries the compasses and maps because he is in charge and is responsible for the men under his command. However, O’Brien gives his characters added humanity by showing that they also carry very personal, intimate items to remind them of home. For example, Dobbins keeps his woman’s pantyhose with him all the time to remind him of the physical love they share. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries Martha’s letters with him, even though he is aware that she does not return the feelings of love that he has for her, but the letters were “mostly chatty, elusive on the matter of love.” (315). Her letters are signed “Love, Martha” (315), but Cross is painfully aware that these words “did not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant.” (315). As the story progresses it becomes clear that Cross is obsessed with Martha, going over and over in his mind their last date before he came to Vietnam and wishing he had “done something brave” (316) in relation to Martha. Even before Lavender’s death, when Lee Strunk is in the tunnel, Cross forgets where he is and “without willing it, he was thinking about Martha.” (319). This is dangerous for Strunk and shows that Cross’s obsession might lead to danger for his men. On this occasion, however, Strunk emerges from the tunnel unscathed, and no harm is done.
However, the central human character is clearly Leiutenant Cross. We find out a lot about all the men in the company, but O’Brien chooses to relate the thoughts and inner feelings of Cross alone. For this reason his obsession with Martha and his guilt at Lavender’s death death make him the central character. Groos is a dynamic character because he chnages in the course of the story – and he is the only character to do so: Lavender’s death causes him to change and he ends the story determined to be a better leader and show more responsibility which is clearly linked to the story’s central idea. Cross realizes that his lack of discipline had caused Lavender’s death: he knew that Lavender was taking tranquilizers and smoking dope to keep calm, but Cross realizes, too late, that he should have confiscated then. This demonstrates that the central idea of the story is true: because Cross neglects his obligations – not confiscating Lavender’s dope – the consequences are severe – Lavender dies.
There is some debate about the main supporting character. A facile response would argue that Lavender is the main supporting character, because his death triggers the changes in the dynamic central character, however, a more intelligent and perceptive response will place Martha as the main supporting character, even though we never see her. Martha, after all, has the biggest influence on the progress of the story, and the transformation that Jimmy Cross undergoes. His obsession with her can be seen as n antidote to all the suffering and violence he sees in Vietnam, because she represents something reassuringly alive and beautiful. O’Brien tells us that on patrol Cross
would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing. He would feel himself rising. Sun and waves and gentle winds, all love and lightness. (316).
“Carrying nothing” is the vital phrase in that sentence, because in Vietnam the soldiers have to carry everything, so it confirms Martha’s importance as symbolic of a different life. However, it is a life of fantasy which he must reject in order to be a good officer.
The central conflict is largely an internal conflict within Cross between his desire to think about Martha and his responsibility towards the men he leads. The two things are incompatible. This central conflict illuminates the central idea because Cross’s decision to burn Martha’s letters demonstrates his own awareness that the two impulses are incompatible. It might be argued that this conflict occurs in all wars – the conflict between retaining one’s humanity (by dreaming of a woman at home and the finer feeling of love) and the necessity to take part in a war in which to be successful may mean abandoning one’s humanity and acting in ruthless, violent ways.
The key supporting conflict is that between the need for discipline in the army and the need of the men to feel comfortable and happy. O’Brien makes it clear that on patrol the men are often very careless. They drop equipment when they get tired of carrying it; soldiers openly smoke dope and take tranquilizers; uniform standards are lax. However, Cross tolerates this because he wants the men to be happy: they are far from home, engaged in a wat when they might die at any moment, so he allows them a certain amount of freedom in their behaviour. However, Lavender’s death changes Cross’s attitude and by the end of the story he vows to “impose strict field discipline.” (323).
O’Brien uses point of view inconsistently in this story, but in a way that does emphasize the central idea. Passages in which O’Brien writes about the men as an omniscient narrator alternate with passages from Lieutenant Cross’s point of view. This alternation makes clealer the conflict between Cross’s very private obsession with Martha and the reality of the infantry company he leads, between his need for love and comfort and the reality of marching, weighed down by equipment, dope and good luck charms through the Vietnamese countryside. O’Brien’s decision to write from Cross’s point of view is viatl so that we see Cross’s transformation at the end of the story,
The setting, like the war the men are engaged in, is hostile and makes their lives more difficult: “They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it” (317). In such a hostile environment it is even more important to maintain discipline, in order to preserve the men’s lives and Cross realizes this by the end of the story and promises to himself to be a better officer – part of which will involve ensuring his men cope with the vicissitudes of such an unpleasant environment. From the men’s point of view – the setting, the landscape and the weater – are simply more things which make their experience in Vietnam intolerable.
The language O’Brien uses shows a clear contrast between the languagee used by the men on patrol – colloquial slang – and the more elevated language that O’Brien uses to convey Cross’s thoughts about Martha. For the men Lavender is a “crying jag” (319), but Martha is a “poet” (316) in Cross’s mind. Once again the innocent peaceful world of America is contrasted with the brutalizing war in Vietnam.
The structure of the story is importnat too. What is especially interesting about the way that O’Brien present’s Lavender’s death is that it is mentioned over a dozen times which clearly suggests how crucial a turning point it is for Cross; it is mentioned so many times to suggest that it preys on Cross’s mind all the time, and he certainly comes to blames himself and his obsession with Martha for the loss of Lavender’s life. The immediate consequence of Lavender’s death is an orgy of revenge: the platoon “burned everything” in the village of Than Khe, and “called in artillery and watched the wreckage.” (317). O’Brien seems intent on showing us that war can have terrible consequences and lead men to act in barbaric ways, because they become desensitized to violence. For Cross the lesson of Lavender’s death is all too clear:
He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war. (320).
Here Cross’s sense of responsibility allows him to see his own failings as a leader.
The effect or Lavender’s death on Jimmy Cross is more profound. On the morning after Lavender’s death, Cross sits in his fox-hole and burns Martha’s letters and the two photographs he has of her. Lavender’s death and the fact that Cross blames himself for letting it happen, for not being attentive enough as a leader, makes the lieutenant realize that Martha would never love him and that she represented a world that was not compatible with being an efficient officer in the army. He ends the story “determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence.” (323). It is only at the end of the story that O’Brien makes it clear that Cross feels that as the officer of the platoon he should have confiscated the “dope” that Lavender carried with him and that Lavender died because he was high and oblivious to danger.
According to Werlock (644), critics see “a religious symbolism in Cross, due his {last} name, his initials (J.C.) and his sacrifice for his men. It is certainly true that by the end of the story Cross has lost any idealism he might have had about love, which suggests that to be a good and efficient officer you have to deny some feelings within yourself, such as the feelings Cross had for Martha. Nagel (34) suggests that leadership brings with it certain responsibilities towards the people that are being lead and that Cross ends the story “a better officer, if a slightly lesser man.”
Works Cited
O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.”
Nagel, James. The Contemporary American Short Story Cycle: the Ethnic Resonance of Genre. 2004. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press. Print.
Werlock, Abby M.P. & Werlock, James P. The Facts on File: Companion to the American Short Story, Volume One. 2010. New York: Infobase Publishing. Print.
