War Stories

Chapter Five: War Stories

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien was a war story that impacted me from the beginning. This is because as the story develops he describes how a soldier Ted Lavender was shot in the head and killed back in Than Khe, carried double the ammunition and the soldiers wondered a lot if he died because they made him carry all that weight. The other soldiers carried the necessary, however Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was emotionally tied to this woman Martha. She was his God, the perfect woman, however he had not initiated any sentimental feelings because war is tough. The story was very touching for me, since one of my brothers went through war and when he wrote letters he would always “sound” different than before, he always carried a rosary that my mother sent him and a picture of his girlfriend in his helmet. He carried that as a reminder of the memories he left back home.