Repetition in "The Things They Carried"

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a collection of short stories centered around the Vietnam War. The first short story shares a title with the book. “The Things They Carried” presents readers with the tragedy of the Vietnam War and its affects on the young men who fought in it. O’Brien illustrates the burdens, both physical and mental, the young soldiers were forced to carry. Throughout the story, O’Brien frequently uses repetition to emphasize the pain of the men.  “They carried…” is repeated over and over again illuminating the hardships of the soldiers. They carried their fear, pain, shame, and guilt on top of the pounds and pounds of their equipment – usually the intangible weighing more than the tangible. The story focuses mostly on Jimmy Cross, a First Lieutenant who is in love with a girl named Martha back home. O’Brien repeats the line, “… Martha had never mentioned the war, except to say, Jimmy, take care of yourself,” (2 and 23). This emphasizes the disconnect between many of the citizens of United States and those fighting the war. Martha, a college student, most likely protested the war and that is why she rarely talked about it in her letters.  The repetition of Martha in Cross’s thoughts represents the hope of love. Cross thinks of his beloved to pass the time and make his life somewhat bearable in Vietnam. The break in repetition of Martha towards the end of the story marks Cross’s loss of innocence. When one of his men, Ted Lavender, is shot while Cross is day dreaming about Martha, his feelings dramatically shift from love to hate. O’Brien again uses the repletion of prefacing any sentence about Lavender with “Until he was shot…” to emphasize the effect of the death on cross. The idea of love versus hate runs throughout the story. By burning his pictures of Martha and her letters, Cross’s love loses to the war, to hate, as he becomes jaded and hardened.