The Things They Carried

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Considering The Things They Carried : Drawing Meaning from Symbols

In O 'Brien 's work of fiction , The Things They Carried , the American soldiers in Vietnam are described as having carried , or humped , many tangible objects which serve as symbols or representations of their personalities and desires . First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is mainly described as holding onto letters from a girl back home named Martha He carries these letters , as other soldiers hold onto other objects because these letters hold value for him . As the story

transpires and the soldiers march on into the Vietnam battlefields , the symbols connected to the various objects sometimes change or alter in meaning Jimmy holds onto these letters in the hope of a future love , living in a dream of good things to come in the future . However , it is important to note the alteration of the letters from being clutched by Jimmy and serving as a connection to a love dream to Jimmy burning the letters and adopting a more stern approach to the possibility of a future with Martha , placing more attention on his troop of men , the battlefront , and facing the reality of soldiering on in battle

Objects serve to represent the stories and challenges of the lives of the individual men , sometimes the symbols to the objects having varying interpretations due to the lack of subjective explanations . For example , Henry Dobbins , a larger man , carries extra rations , candy bars a heavy machine gun , his girlfriend 's...