How Things So Light, Can Be So Heavy

Joby Mattingly
Mrs. S. Aiken
English 1102-45
September 16, 2009

How Things So Light, Can Be So Heavy

In this crazy world today, we are at war overseas with troops fighting for our freedom and the United States. We have been to war all throughout history, and Tim O’Brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried” is a very good example of how the war was and how people looked at it. This short story tells almost every little detail about these men and what they carried. In “The Things They Carried,” Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, Kiowa, and Ted Lavender were unique characters each in their own special way, through what they carry, why they carry such objects, and what those objects symbolize in the story.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was a very special character. He was the leader over all these men, which meant that it was his job to look after them and make sure the mission was complete right and everyone got to go home safely. What they carried was determined on rank. Lt. Jimmy Cross carried a compass, maps, codebooks, binoculars, strobe light, and a .45 caliber pistol that weighed 2.9 pounds fully loaded. And the most important thing was the responsibility of the lives of his men. But the most unique thing he carried was pictures and letters of this woman he had fallen in love with while across the country. Her name was Martha and she was living in New Jersey going to school. But the letters were not love letters, even though Jimmy Cross wanted them to be. Martha didn’t see him like that. She just deeply cared for him and that was it. But one day Martha wrote Lt. Cross again and put a little pebble in the envelope so that he could keep for good luck. One day when Lt. Cross was thinking about Martha he wasn’t paying attention to where all his men were and in result Ted Lavender got shot and killed in the head. And after that Lt. Cross made sure he was a better Lieutenant to all his men and Martha. (O’Brien 1036-1038.)
The next character was a very unique one himself. Kiowa was a Native American, devout Baptist’s. He carried an illustrated New Testament that had been given to him by his father, who back home where’s Kiowa’s from, taught Sunday school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Kiowa also carried his grandmother’s distrust of the white man. Which I’m sure it was hard for him to be close with the other men he was fighting with. He also carried his grandfather’s old hunting hatchet. Kiowa was probably really close to his family and needed that New Testament and his grandfathers hunting hatchet, which meant a lot to him and probably got him through the war and is what gave him extra strength during the hard times. But when Ted Lavender got shot, Kiowa saw everything happen. Later on, as he was telling the other men, Kiowa could not shut up about telling everyone about Ted Lavender. And that didn’t help the situation at all. (O’Brien 1037-1039.)
The last special character is Ted Lavender. He was the guy who had gotten shot right outside of Than Khe, after going to take a pee. He was scared and carried thirty-four rounds. The typical load was twenty-five rounds. He died with more than twenty pounds of ammunition plus the weight of all the other stuff he had to carry, flak jacket, helmet, rations, water, toilet paper, and all the rest of the necessities. By carrying all this extra ammunition he felt safer out there and more prepared. And I’m sure a lot of soldiers today might do the same thing because they are so scared out there. He was a good soldier but just was scared to death, just like anybody else would be. (O’Brien 1039.)
In Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried”, there are a lot of different and very unique characters. The story explains how much everything weighed and the unbearable weight that was put on them. In “The Things They Carried,” Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, Kiowa, and Ted Lavender were unique characters each in their own special way, through what they carry, why they carry such objects, and what those objects symbolize in the story. But overall it was an excellent short story.