Literary Annalysis

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Literary Analysis

The Things They carried

In the book, the chapter “The Things They Carried." It is actually about the Vietnam War and soldiers or men involved in the war. It talks about Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his men (squad members) and the girl “Martha” who distract Cross. As well as it talks about all of the tangible and intangible things that are carried by the men.

Very firstly, the Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was carrying letters from the girl whose name is Martha who were English student at Mount Sebastian College. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was reading her letter all the night and he was in love with the Martha but she was not interested in love with him. Some major necessities or requirements are hugely important. Kiowa, such as carries the copy of the New Testament while Ted is fully scared and amazed and he moves tranquilizers until he got shot in his head. Every person can hump or carry something which exist in the world tangibly while something intangible can also be humped or carried by the people like the love of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross which he is carrying with himself (O'Gorman, 1998 pp, 289-309). Beyond that every person especially army men keeps a photo of someone with themselves while going away from home or town for war. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross has two photos of Martha where she play volleyball in one photo where Lieutenant Jimmy Cross thinks that she is purely virgin. Both of them have seen a movie once upon time where he thinks that he touches her knee, then he wants that he carry her to his room and then led her in the bed and touches her knee the entire night till morning (O’Brien, 2009 n.p).

They also carry the required things which are required for them to be carried as per the command military heads. Like Rat Kiley is the medic so he has to pick and carry medical products like tablets, comic books and M&M etc. with himself. As Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is the platoon leader so he need to carry codebooks, a compass and the responsibility for his squad or team. In the way, ted dies after the village of Than Khe. Ted was moving more than nine rounds of larger ammos than any other person in the team as well as all other things that other people carry with themselves plus the fear he has (O’Brien, 2009 n.p). For the shot of ted, Jimmy Cross blames himself completely but they get burn from the village afterward.

They also carries number of larger sized and heavy weapons and other related materials with themselves in which very few are listed in the book. As well as all of them carry the power and respect for all the things they have and they carry.

Before the death of ted, Jimmy Cross get a charm from Martha which is a pebble. During the situation, Jimmy Cross carries the Pebble in his mouth with having trouble of thinking of the war because he is in love with Martha. Men carry the things based on the area where they are going like they go to mountain or they are supposed to go to a mined area as well as it depends on the mission too . Before doing that, sometimes they are required to blow out the tunnel where they are needed to search it which could be terrifying job for them and they draw number to find out that who will be finding it. After crossing the Khe Village the draw number comes on Lee Strunk and he goes inside the tunnel while all others sit down and wait for him (O’Brien, 2009 n.p). Here Jimmy Cross focuses to concentrate on the tunnel but he thinks that what it would be like to be inside in the tunnel while having Martha too. He tries a lot to focus on the tunnel but he is not able to focus properly because he is like a kid and his age is only 24 years (O'Gorman, 1998 pp, 289-309).

After sometime, Lee Strunk comes out of the tunnel fine and all of the team members get relaxed and start jokes with each other. And then, Lee Strunk makes a scary noise and all other become amazed and then lee Strunk gets hit in his head. All of them get engaged with each other and become serious at the moment about the case they just saw. After that they proceed to take action and they get succeed in what they do (O’Brien, 2009 n.p). After that, they see some corpse lye in the ground and Sander says there had a real moral to this. He cuts thumb from the corpse, give the thumb to Bowkers and says that actual moral was, “have gun would travel.”

After the death of Lavender, the Jimmy Cross and all other team members burn the village and feel very guilty for the death of lavender. Cross loves Martha than this gentleman but see what happened. He cries for both (Lavender and Martha) because he lost lavender while Martha belongs to another world who does not love him in any way. Kiowa notes that Jimmy cries and thinks that how the Lieutenant cares about the men and squad. Then Norman Bowker says him to get silent and he gets silent. After that, they forward with the dignity even when everything are fully scary but they joking about this afterward (O'Gorman, 1998 pp, 289-309).

After the death of lavender, they all say that he was very up by the drugs and he did not feel anything. On this, Sander says that these drugs ruins the entire body of the person for whole day. They have a tough situation at hand and go forward with the thoughts that they can die at anytime and anywhere. As well as they have the fear of embarrassment but no one of them discuss it (O’Brien, 2009 n.p). At the time, they pretend that they will be back to the country (America) by the Jets.

After the death of Lavender, Jimmy Cross burn all Martha’s letter and photos and he rethinks that it is just a sensation that lavender is still dead. At the same time, he thinks that he does not love Martha while he loves her at the same moment. He decide that he is not going to be disturbed by Martha any more after this happening (O'Gorman, 1998 pp, 289-309). He goes back to crack down on all men (solders and squad members) and decide that no matter what the men think or consider but he would be the real leader from now onward.

Works Cited

"The Things They Carried: Summary, Characters & Themes - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.Com." Study.com. N. p., 2019. Web. 23 June 2019.

O’Brien, Tim. "The Things They Carried". Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.

O'Gorman, Farrell. "The Things They Carried as Composite Novel". WAR LITERATURE AND THE ARTS 10 (1998): 289-309.