Theme 1: The Things They Carried

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Theme 1 The Things They Carried

• He carried a strobe light and the responsibility
  for the lives of his men.

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• They carried all the emotional baggage of men
  who might die. Grief, terror, love,
  longing-these were intangibles, but the
  intangibles had their own mass and specific
  gravity, they had tangible weight

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Theme 2 The Nature of Storytelling and Memory

• Storytelling linked to confession punishment
  is reliving it as you remember

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• the war occurred half a lifetime ago, and yet
  the remembering makes it now. And sometimes
  remembering will lead to a story, which makes it
  forever.

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Theme 3 Innocence vs. Harsh Reality

• Reality basically gives childhood a head-butt
• When Cross thinks of Martha, he is transported
  elsewhere (pebble is physical prop in the
  imaginary scene)
• He could not bring himself to worry about
  matters of security. He was beyond that. He was
  just a kid at war, in love. He was 24 years old.
  He couldnt help it. (OBrien 11)

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Theme 4 Outsiders especially women

• Examples Martha never mentions war in her
  letters except to say take care of yourself
• when he thought about Martha, it would be only
  to think that she belonged elsewhere.

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Theme 5 The role of Courage and Bravado

• Bravado is
• They made fun of the guys that shot their toes
  off, but they secretly admired them

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Page 20, Contd

• They carried the common secret of cowardice
  barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze
  or hide, and in many respects, this was the
  heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put
  down, it required perfect balance and perfect
  postureThey carried the soldiers greatest fear,
  which was the fear of blushing.