In �The Things They Carried� the description of the items they carry is painfully precise. For example, �The letters weighed 10 ounces� �nylon-covered flak jacket, which weighed 6.7 pounds� (1108). Not only does he give the actual weight of the items, he does not leave any items out. Nothing seems too small and insignificant to be mentioned. For example, �They carried Sterno, safety pins, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire �finger nail clippers, Psy Ops leaflets, bush hats, bolos� (1115). Detail is even given to explain the function of items, for example explaining the many uses of a poncho. The attention to detail in every aspect of the story gives it the feeling of being �real.� He explains that �Henry Dobbins ate a tropical chocolate bar� right before Ted Lavender goes off to pee and as we know die (1113). Most stories seem to omit these sorts of things as unimportant because they do not add to the plot line. But in this story the extraneous details are what make the story. Perhaps this is the case because this story is so horrible and traumatic that it is just hard to believe it happened, so using these details make it seem real and believable. Just as the narrator explains that when people die it isn’t dramatic and fancy like in movies, �Boom-down, and you were dead, never partly dead� he explains (1122).
O’Brien is even painfully truthful about the inner feelings of the men. He says �They died so as not to die of embarrassment� (1120). Instead of portraying them as courageous heroes, he is very honest and shows their weakness and the truth of the situation- that everyone was scared and embarrassed to be scared. O’Brien is also honest when it comes to describing how the men react to death. While awaiting Lavender’s chopper Mitchell Sanders and Henry Dobbins have a discussion about the moral of Lavender’s death. This conversation has a joking tone, as evident by Sanders wink at Dobbins while telling the moral. This �moral� is a type of scripted, empty gesture that the soldiers have grown accustomed to use in an effort to survive the pain. As O’Brien states, �When someone died, it wasn’t quite dying, because in a curious way it seemed scripted, and because they had their lines mostly memorized, irony mixed with tragedy and because they called it by other names, as if to encyst and destroy the reality of death itself� (1119). Even when he describes the scene of Lieutenant Cross burning the letters he says, �He realized it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental, too, but mostly just stupid� (1121). He does not try to make this scene into something more than it is. He does not romanticize it, and he does not try to make it sound grand. O’Brien later states, �Lavender was dead. You couldn’t burn the blame� (1121). So by burning the pictures he is not solving everything. Even after he burns them he continues to see Martha playing volleyball in his head. Therefore this effort to end his fantasies has its flaws, which makes it seem even more real. But his intention remains to protect his men and it seems that he has learned this from Lavender’s death. Throughout the story the emotions of the men, both Cross and the other soldiers seem very realistic because of their complexity and precision.
Class Written For : English 3072 (American Literature)
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