Weight of The Things They Carried

"They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried" (O'Brien, 7).

In the first chapter of The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, there is a lot of repetition. For example, O'Brien repeats the phrase "they carried" throughout the whole chapter. Each item the soldiers in the novel carried had a purpose, and varied among individuals depending on missions, rank, specialty, necessity, and even superstition. Furthermore, the weight of each item has an extreme significance and is calculated to the exact ounce because any extra weight places a burden on the soldier carrying the sac. However, O'Brien doesn't only refer to the weight of physical things the soldiers carried in Vietnam, but also the weight of figurative things such as emotional baggage and responsibility for others in the platoon. When Ted Lavender was shot and killed, Lieutenant Cross carries the grief and guilt "like a stone in his stomach"(16) because he loved Martha more than his own men.
Because of the draft, many of the men in Vietnam were not there voluntarily, but rather, as O'Brien suggests, because they were afraid of being cowards. The soldiers endured grief, terror, hatred, pain and fatigue, pushing themselves to their physical, mental, and emotional limits. Men dreamed of being lifted away in the "big silver freedom bird" (22) and have the weights of the war taken off their shoulders, but knew that the weight of the war would never go away. Witnessing death and violence, and the anticipation of death and violence, has its "own mass and specific gravity" (20). The things they carried, such as grenades, guns, pistols, etc. had such immense power, and so much more weight than the just the physical weight on their backs.