Student Essay on The Things They Carried

"They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated bibles, each other. And, if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war..." Men in the Vietnam War who served side by side with a man named Tim O'Brien carried all of these things. Now, twenty years later, Tim is writing about the terrible mistake he made of going to Vietnam and the horrific things he saw and did. Tim believes that by writing he is able to work through these things: they give meaning to who he is, by linking him to the past. This is why Tim O'Brien's life is linked to the fictional novel, The Things They Carried.

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is an innocent and sensible young man who has to lead his men through many ordeals in Vietnam. Jimmy would much rather be in New Jersey with his college love, Martha. Jimmy thinks about Martha nonstop. He reads her letters and admires the few pictures he has of her every night while sitting in his foxhole. Jimmy was never sure whether or not Martha felt the same about him; he would ponder about this for hours. One day, while Jimmy was thinking about Martha shots burst out of the thick jungle brush. Once the shots had seized he realized one of his men had been gunned down. It was Ted Lavender. To this day, Jimmy still does not forgive himself for Teds death. He believes that his obsession of Martha distracted him from his ability to lead his men. That night, Jimmy burned all of his belongings from Martha.

One day, many years after the war, Tim O'Brien went to visit Jimmy Cross at his home in Massachusetts. That entire day the two of them talked about all of the things that they had seen and done so long ago. They had gathered up around 100 or so old photographs from the war. Tim recalls when they paused on a picture of Ted Lavender. Jimmy rubbed his eyes and said, "I'll never forgive myself for Ted Lavender's death. It is something that will never go away." Later that day, Tim thought there would be no harm in bringing up Martha. Jimmy just laughed and went up stairs. On his arrival back downstairs, he handed Tim a photograph of Martha. Tim didn't understand. He was sure that Jimmy had burned all the photographs of her after Ted's death. Jimmy explained to Tim how he had run into Martha at a college reunion. The two of them talked for the entire night and as Jimmy was just about to leave Martha handed him a copy of one of the photographs she had sent him in the war. That was the last the two of them saw of each other. Martha had become a Lutheran Missionary and was helping people all over the world. Just before Tim left, he mentioned to Jimmy how he would like to write a story on some of his experiences. Jimmy responded by saying, "Why not? Maybe she'll read it and come begging. There's always hope, right"" Obviously, this was a very influential experience for Tim. After all, he later on followed through with his plan and included Jimmy's story in his book.

Tim's entire platoon had been instructed to move to an ambush site just outside of the town of My Khe. Tim and another soldier had stationed themselves deep in the jungle brush to watch guard. The two of them had decided that they would switch of every hour posting guard. It was around twelve when Tim was awakened. As the other soldier fell back to sleep, Tim saw a figure appearing out of the fog in the distance. He knew it was the enemy. Without even thinking about it, Tim waited for the man to be close enough and then threw a grenade. He can remember hearing the man drop his gun and start to run shortly before there was a loud pop. "Oh, man, you f**in' trashed the f*er. You scrambled his sorry self, look at that, you did, you laid him out like Shredded f*in' Wheat." That is the first thing that Tim heard after he realized he had just killed a man. Tim kneeled next to the mangled body and stayed there for a long time. He could not believe what he had just done.

When Tim's daughter was nine, she asked her dad if he had ever killed anyone. She was very smart for her age. She understood the war and that her dad was involved in it. This was very difficult for Tim, but there was only one thing that he could do. He said, "of course not," and then took her onto his lap and held her for a while. At that moment he hoped that someday she would ask this question once again when she was old enough to understand. Unfortunately, she never did. Tim thought that the easy way to tell her would be to explain what happened in one of his books. He devoted an entire three chapters to the explanation of the event.

Another soldier that served along side Tim O'brien was Norman Bowker. Norman Bowker recalls back to when the platoon camped in a field alongside a village that turned out to be the village bathroom. It was raining, which made the air smell of feces even more. Shortly after the platoon had realized the mistake they made, shots were fired. The platoon was under attack. The entire platoon dove under the muck for cover. Norman heard his fellow soldier, Kiowa, screaming for help. Norman slowly crawled while dodging bullets in the direction of Kiowa. He saw Kiowa sinking into the muck. Norman tried to pull him out but the stink and muck became too much to bear. He just simply wasn't able to pull him free, Norman let go. Although he was able to physically let go, he was never able to mentally do so. In the back of his mind there was always the terror of knowing that when he let go Kiowa was still alive.

Shortly after the war, Norman Bowker hanged himself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown in central Iowa. Before his death, Tim received a long, disjointed letter from Norman. The letter explained to Tim how he could not find a meaningful use for his life after the war. The letter also talked about how Norman had read Tim's first book (Combat Zone) and how much he liked it. For half a page he talked about how much the book meant to him and how it brought back some memories that had been locked away for a while. Towards the end of the letter, Norman brought up something that Tim had a feeling was coming. Norman suggested that Tim write another book. "What you should do, Tim, is write a story about a guy who feels like he got zapped over in that s*thole. A guy who can't get his act together and just drives around town all day and can't think of any place to go and doesn't know how to get there anyway." Tim was hit very hard with Norman's letters. Tim wrote about Norman a lot in all of his books preceding the letters. He didn't just do it because Norman wanted him to. He also felt it was the right thing to do.

In the end, the physical things that the men in the Vietnam War carried were very insignificant to the unrelenting images of a nightmarish war. For many people it is a period in their lives they wish they could simply leave behind. Unfortunately, not all who served are able to forget. So, that is how Tim O'Briens life is influential in his writing of The Things They Carried.