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What We Carry
Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” was interesting as it took me through the jungles with the eight soldiers and put me in their lives for a brief moment. Having never been in the service, I found the story exciting as I had to visualize what they were seeing and imagine myself carrying the “stuff” that they did. I also had to imagine the trials that they struggled through and the tribulations that they shared together, as the story spanned a day in their life. Not only, though, did the story portray the actual struggles of the service men but it also relates to that of the struggles of the average civilian, like myself, as we battle our daily lives. O’Brien did a great job at doing this as he knew that the average human carries baggage that is both needed and not needed and how we use our baggage determines how our lives and the lives of others will end up. I feel that the theme of O’Brien’s story, is that we all must carry “stuff” and we need to deal with what they are, in order to lead a more effective life.
There are many things that I carry around with me in my daily life that I both need and don’t need. Although, I carry many more positive things than I do negative, I know that they are there and how I must learn to use them is essential. Even if I don’t carry around physical “things” like the soldiers in the story, I carry around the thoughts and images of my past and of the opinions and judgments of my future. Troubles that I dealt with as a teenager follow me into my present life now. Sure, we as teenagers made some stupid mistakes, but there are still a few of them that haunt me even to this day. I have learned that they will never disappear because of how much of an impact it had on me, but I have discovered on my own when it is healthy and harmful to bring them up. I had disagreements with my parents and I saw their viewpoints as outrageous and unfair but I have educated myself to know that they were in the right, while I was in the wrong. That is something that I will go on to pass through my children and I have learned to carry that baggage with me, as a means of preventing harm to them.
On the flip side, I also have visions and dreams of where I would like to go in the future. Although I am half way there, after marrying my wonderful wife, there are still goals that I’m striving for. Along side the goals, I carry fantasies that I would find pleasurable to attain. Unlike First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, I have learned that I must deal with real life first and then fantasize. Even though the fantasies surface at peculiar times, I must learn to put them aside in order to attain my tangible goals. This is where Lt. Cross failed. He put his fantasies before the task at hand, the protection of his men, and a tragedy occurred when Ted Lavender was killed. When people let some of the negative things they carry interfere with reality, not only will it ravage someone else, but it will definitely afflict them. Lt. Cross will have to live, always knowing that his fantasies cost Lavender his life. How he deals with that tragedy will be important in his future. Will he let Lavender’s death harm him more, by constantly suffering and then sink into a state of depression or will he learn from this mistake and remember it when he fantasizes again! That is what O’Brien is wanting us to consider. Dealing with the “things we carry” can be a troublesome task but we must learn to deal with them in a way that will impact others around us in a positive manner and we can not let our fantasies outweigh our reality, because harm then, will be inevitable.
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