... the focuses is on what the soldiers carried, which not only covers the physical items but bleeds into the emotional and psychological baggage of the war. Even after the war, the soldiers still had to "hump" the pain, guilt, nightmares, and deaths that continue to burden their thoughts. Every character carried items specific to their rank, necessity, mission, superstition, background, girlfriends, and many other factors. In The Things They Carried, Tim O"Brien and Jimmy Cross carried many of the ... line of reality and fantasy to try to be the confident and skilled leader that he strove t...

• Word Count: 1691
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... a girl he loves, who does not love him. The platoon is ordered to go destroy a tunnel system near a village in Than Khe. After the tunnel was cleared, Tom Lavender is shot in the head while returning to the platoon after relieving himself. The central idea of the story is people who neglect their responsibilities often need to experience the results of their failure in order to change. The main character in this story is Lieutenant Jimmy ... 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 gra...

• Word Count: 1022
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... done. Jimmy Cross" change in character is just the beginning of The Things They Carried. As the book continues to document what happened to the men O"Brien fought alongside, the reader continues to notice the peculiar way men change when faced with extremes. O"Brien's The Things They Carried probes deeply into the human conscience and presents it in such a way that it stirs the reader. In one chapter O"Brien remembers a man he killed. The only man he killed in Vietnam. The book goes on ... him into something completely different than what he was before the war. Critical Analysis: The Th...

• Word Count: 982
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... author. That's how O"Brien wrote his story and one of our class assignments, "The Things They Carried". O"Brien wrote about the life of a group of soldiers over in the Vietnam War and the lifestyle that is led while fighting the war. This story showed that not only did the soldiers have to carry out the equipment, weapons and other goods of necessity to live while being there, but ... countries and defending our freedom. The soldiers in the story didn't just watch out for themselves, but also watched the back and activities that their fellow comrades would feel as well. O"Brien does such...

• Word Count: 939
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School