The Destructive Power of The Weight

How many times have you wished that you could be just like someone else? People always look for the things they do not have, as it comes natural to them. Humans enjoy what they do not posses, and as soon as they get something that they truly desire, it loses its importance for us, as it is not something that we have to dream of. Also, despite the fact that many people think that others live a better life, no one ever know what truly is going in someone’s life. People, just like turtles, tend to look extremely hard on the outside, pretending that everything is okay, and on the inside, are extremely sensible. The reason is that humans do not like being supported just out of pity. In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the author explores the theme of how people show their true self under the influence of one of the most dehumanizing events, the Vietnam War. The US soldiers send to Vietnam are mostly young people, who have led completely different lives up until they had received news that they are drafted. However, now that they have arrived in Asia, they are exposed to the reality of human brutality. Throughout The Things They Carried, all of the soldiers carry different “necessities” for themselves, that are described by O’Brien as weights, which not only further describe the characters but also change them.

With the arrival of the soldiers in Vietnam, their lives completely change, despite the fact that most of them do not realize it. Many of them do not understand the seriousness of the war until they see their first dead person, or until they kill somebody. Even though most of the US troops come from extremely diverse backgrounds, they share one common thing, which is the fact that all of them carry the weight of the war. It completely transforms the soldiers from normal citizens of the world to wild animals. They begin to act in a way that they would not be able to understand, but they cannot help it. Somehow they have to fight against the weight of the war and what it does to them. An example of “wild” behaviour is when Rat Kiley goes crazy and decides to shoot himself in the leg. Kiley is absolutely terrified of the thought that he has to continue not only being in Vietnam but seeing and killing people: “‘This whole war,’ he said. ‘You know what it is? Just one big banquet. Meat, man. You and me. Everybody. Meat for the bugs’” (O’Brien 212). The significance of those words lies behind the symbolism of the bugs, which Kiley sees as the whole concept of the Vietnam War. The weight of the conflict causes thousands of innocent people to die, who symbolize the meat. And those deaths, who are almost guaranteed for the troops, are followed by the arrival of the bugs, which symbolize true evil, as well as the fact that the people who are considered the bravest by their society, die in the worst way. The weight of the war causes Kiley to lose his mind, and as a result, the only thing he can see is death, and the only way he can escape it is by hurting himself. However, the important thing about the comrades of Kiley is that they completely understand him: “Nobody blamed him, Sanders said” (O’Brien 212). As stated previously, the soldiers are extremely different, but all of them are affected by the weight of the war, and as a result, they are able to realize what Rat Kiley is going through. The US soldiers understand that no matter what they do, they will always be affected by the brutality of the Vietnam war, which they are already accustomed to, and because of that, they accept the fact that Kiley shot himself as something normal.

Additionally, by going to the Vietnam War, US soldiers have to carry the weight of the atmosphere. They have to put up with a completely different environment, and despite the fact that they feel completely out of place, they are asked to be their strongest version of themselves in order to kill: “They carried the land itself—Vietnam, the place, the soil—a powdery orange-red dust that covered their boots and fatigues and faces. They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity” (O’Brien 14). The use of symbolism by O’Brien describes how heavy the weight of the Vietnam War was, and even though in the beginning they were able to carry it, they were bound to eventually break down. What the USA asked of their soldiers was impossible, simply because they did not understand what the troops will have to go through, and how that will affect them and their future.

Furthermore, with the weight of the war, comes the weight of the guilt of their actions. Most of the US troops did not want to fight against innocent people; however, they did not have a choice. They could not escape the draft because the rest of the society would see them as cowards. They were put in a dead end. Tim O’Brien writes, “I was a coward. I went to the war”, as he understands that he did not stand up for what he believed in (O’Brien 58). However, what he does not understand is that he did not have a choice. No matter what O’Brien decided to do, he would have always regretted it because his mind would not settle without knowing whether he made the right decision, which is impossible to know. Additionally, other troops felt the weight of guilt as a result of their actions during the war. Similarly to O’Brien, they do not understand that they did not have a choice, as they were on the battlefield, where they either have to kill or they will be killed. After a soldier has killed someone, they cannot simply forget about it, as it was not their decision in the first place: “We kept the dead alive with stories“ (O’Brien 226). The troops wanted to turn back time and avoid murder; however, it was impossible. Consequently, they came up with telling stories as a way to relief some of the guilt. They imagined that the people who have died are still alive, just so they can not think of how they have taken somebody’s future from them. Many troops, just like O’Brien, were forced to live with the weight of the guilt of decisions, which were not entirely theirs.

Last but not least, all of the soldiers carry the weight of love. What they love varies from soldier to soldier; however, what stays the same is that with each day in Vietnam, they further themselves from their hopes. The soldiers carry the love of their past with them, and that makes them continue to fight during the worst parts of their day. However, sometimes, their home feels so distant, that the weight of the love turns from positive to negative. They begin to realize that the chances of them successfully escaping the war are minimal. Additionally, the troops carry a deep love for each other, as they are in the war together. What happens to someone happens to everyone. This allows them to create relationships that are stronger than any other: “In late August they made a pact that if one of them should ever get totally rucked up—a wheelchair wound—the other guy would automatically find a way to end it” (O’Brien 62). Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk rely on each other and their connection to cope with the war. They know that they would not want to be alive if they had a “wheelchair wound” so they trust each other in order to end their life. However, the love between those people is much more than that of friends. It is a connection of brothers who have been sent to hell together. As a result, Jensen was not able to perform his promise, which meant for him that he failed his brother, and as a result, he had to carry the devastating effects of love.Throughout The Things They Carried, the characters of the novel are forced to carry different weights with themselves. The weight of the war itself, the weight of the atmosphere, the weight of guilt, and the weight of love, all further destroy the soldiers, both physically and mentally, by making the war worse than it already is. Also, the most horrible truth about the Vietnam war is what soldiers either die doing or what they come back home to think about. All of the different themes stated above are examples of something that soldiers not only have to live with during the war but of something that they take back with themselves, in case they survive. This is what makes the weights soldiers carry so dehumanizing, as nobody could ever escape from them unless they die.