"The Things They Carried"

“The Things They Carried”

            What is the story saying about the theme of war?

The story talks about how war is no place for one way romances,” He would image romantic camping trips into the white mountains of New Hampshire.”(341) The theme of war is painted gray with curtain of sorrow and tears full of fear, “For the most part they carried themselves with poise, a kind of dignity. Now and then, however, there were times of panic.”(351) War is a weight on the mind of the soldiers that they will carry until the end of their life,” 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.”(352)  War will change a men ideals and dreams. War can create a brotherhood among those who are together and far away at the same time,” there it is, they’d say. Over and over-there is my friend.”(352)  

            War is and will always be the fear behind human dreams and ideas. I had seem the born of a new life into these world and the also the early end of someone life. War is nothing more than a selfish shadow that would not care about who, what or where, violence will manifest. War can corrupt the purest of heart, and transform him into a inhuman animal,” They burned everything. They shot chickens and dogs, they thrashed the village well, they called in artillery and watched the wreckage….” (349)

They weight of war can not be weighted in pounds, it can only be weighted in dreams destroy and tears shared.