I'm not very fond of stories that talk about with war. I find them hard to deal with. I have read Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried", and it's not just about the act of war. Had it only been about what soldiers do in war, I probably would not have finished reading the story. "The Things They Carried" is about what emotional burdens that soldiers must deal with in war and the things they do it make it through each day.
             Each soldier has their own personal belongings that they carry in addition to the equipment they are required to carry. The story speaks of the actually weight of each item they would carry. Depending on their rank or the job that is to be carried out, they have their own specific equipment. They also have equipment that they alternate in carrying. The soldiers in the story are called grunts. They would use the term hump for march or to walk "but it implied burdens beyond the intransitive" (638). This story is not just about the physical weight of the equipment they carry because of war, but about the emotional weight that each of them carried. The commanding officer, First Lieutenant Cross, carries the responsibility of his men's lives. He also carries the letters from a girl he loves. The personal items the soldiers carry are what keep them connected to home (638):
             Until he was shot, Ted Lavender carried six or seven ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity. Mitchell Sanders, the RTO, carried condoms. Norman Bowker carried a diary. Rat Kiley carried comic books. Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father, who taught Sunday school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
            
             These items helps them deal with burdens that war puts on them. In Lieutenant Cross' attempt to stay connected to home, he feels responsible for the death of one of his soldiers. He believes had he not been daydreaming a...