The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried was a great story. It portrayed war, death, and the distractions of love in a very real way. The story and theme fitted perfectly with the scenario of Marine grunts, who face the reality of death on a frequent basis. The daydreaming and wandering off that the grunt faced because he was in love gave it a very sentimental touch. The story also talked about the tangible things we carry, like water or clothes and the intangible things, like guilt or a heavy heart. We shared an interesting thought in class Friday; that intangible things are the truly significant ones. When he burnt the pictures of his love, he was getting rid of the tangible, yet he still had her memory, which was intangible. I think that anything tangible, once it has an intangible significance it becomes of worth. That’s why the pictures were only meaningful because the man had feelings of love, desire, and longing for the girl in them. All those are intangible things he carried.

The story hit home with me because my brother is currently a Marine grunt getting ready for war in Afghanistan. A part in the book that reminded me of him was where the grunt is in his foxhole, looking over the pictures and letters. He said he kept on thinking how he could get that moment back with her and touch her knee all night long. The knee wasn’t really what he wanted, but in a moment of such loneliness, even the chance he missed to keep his hand on her knee for a second more, haunted him. My brother says that when you are in a foxhole and it’s cold, lonely, and scary that even the sort of boring things you used to do become so desirable. You wish you were someplace else and you allow your mind to wander off to where it feels safer.

Kind of going with what we’ve been talking about all class- Perhaps although we should be realistic about love, life, and death; we should also leave some room for simple daydreaming. Dare to wander a little bit, in the midst of such real ugliness. Nevertheless, it did the grunt in the story no good.