Symbolism in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried Essay Example

Love, hope, longing, mental and physical baggage. All things that author Tim O'Brien mentions in his book The Things They Carried. Throughout the book, Tim O’Brien uses multiple symbols to represent the first few things I mentioned in the beginning. Some of the symbols are more literal and some are more left up to interpretation. Which I think is a perfect balance and why this is such a great book.

The very first symbol demonstrated in this book are the letters that first lieutenant Jimmy cross carried. In the very first paragraph, it said “...Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha… They were not love letters but Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack.” To me, this symbolizes love and hope. Something as simple as letters that had no mention of love in them kept Jimmy Cross going, giving him something to look forward to even though he was at war. Another symbol of love are the stockings that Henry Dobbins carried. To him, they were his lucky socks, his charm, something that if he had nothing could go wrong. Protecting him from open fire to even land mines. Whenever he smelt them it took him to a place where he could forget about the war and imagine himself with his girlfriend. Even after he and his girlfriend broke up he still said, “” No sweat”...”The magic doesn't go away”” To me, this doesn't just symbolize love and hope but also a sense of security and safety.

The second symbol ever mentioned in the book was one I think most of the readers missed at first, and that was when he started naming off the thing they needed to carry like when he said, ” Among the necessities or near necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs… Together, these items weighed between 12 and 18 pounds.” I think the reason he mentioned the weight of those things was to represent the physical burden that the soldiers also had apart from the mental burdens. Another relatively important symbol in the book that I think most people miss is the land. It was almost personified in a way it would swallow things up sometimes literally and sometimes figuratively. For example, when Kiowa died it said, “ Kiowa was gone. He was under the mud and water, and their only thought was to find him and dig him out.” and when Mary Anne was gone it said,” She was lost inside herself… Mary Anne walked off into the mountains and did not come back. No body was ever found. No equipment, no clothing. For all he knew, Rat said, the girl was still alive,” To me, it seemed as if the land was a friend but also an enemy at times almost human-like.

Now we get to my favorite symbols represented in this book, the ones left up to interpretation. In chapter 14 it starts by saying, “ There was no music. Most of the hamlet had burned down, including her house, which was now smoke, and the girl danced with her eyes half closed, her feet bare. She was maybe fourteen.” Later when the girl finds her dead family she starts dancing again but in a different way. Then later in the chapter, it says,” Azar mocked the girls dancing.” To me, this symbolizes how senseless and detached from their morals they had gotten. They had seen so many horrible things already that now watching a girl finding her burnt family members wasn't too bad anymore. In the chapter “The Man I killed” I thought it was just meant to symbolize his guilt for killing the guy but after this part,” In the presence of his father and uncles, he pretended to look forward to going his patriotic duty, which was also a privilege, but at night he prayed with his mother that the war might end soon. Beyond anything else, he was afraid of disgracing himself, and therefore his family and village” I believe that it's also supposed to symbolize himself and why he decided to go to war because it was so similar to him.

In conclusion The Things They Carried is a book full of symbolism, but to me these are the ones that stood out the most.