The Things They Carried 1
The Things They CarriedThe Things They Carried
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his platoon of seventeen are fighting in the Vietnam War. They all come from from different places, but share one common goal. This goal is to fight with honor and dignity, and never show weakness or vulnerability. Men carried things to war, that represent their personalities. For example: Ted Lavender is scared all of the time so he carries tranquilizers. Men carried things according to their rank and of their field specialty. What they also carried was according to their mission,like if they were fighting in the mountains, they would carry mosquito repellent. The goal of the platoon was to watch out for each other, but while Lieutenant Cross was daydreaming , one of his men Ted Lavender was shot. Cross, would forever carry the guilt of that day. Men carried diseases, lice, and even the Vietnam soil on their shoes. But the most important thing all of the men carried was their dignity. No matter how they felt inside, destruction would not be dying. It would be revealing their pain and emotions. After the death of Ted Lavender Cross decided that he would become tougher and didn�t care if he wasn�t loved. His job now was to lead the people to victory.
Jimmy Cross reunites with one of his men in Massachusetts many years after the war. They reminisce about all of their men and talk about Ted Lavender, who Cross still takes the responsibility of his death for. Cross tells this man how he ran into Martha in 1979 and how they talked for eight hours. He told Martha that he still loved her, but she could not return the same feeling. For the rest of the visit, Cross didn�t talk about Martha. The friend decides that this experience of the war would make a good story and Cross agrees, as long as Martha is not mentioned.
The war was not always violent and there were men who did humorous things. There was one time when Mitchell Sanders had lice. He used his thumbnail and an envelope to put the lice in. He then sent the envelope to his draft board in Ohio. Playing checkers was also popular among the men and they liked it because the game was orderly and strategic. There were red and black checkers and there were no obstacles such as mountains to overcome. One could always see the enemy in front of them and there was always a clear cut winner or loser. The chapter jumps back to the man who Jimmy Cross visited in Massachusetts when the war was over. He is forty-three years old now, a writer, and a Vietnam veteran. He is the author of this novel and telling stories about the Vietnam war. He talks about his memories of the bad things during the war, but of the good as well. One of his good memories was of a man...
To view the complete essay, you be registered.