Theme 1: The Things They Carried “He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men.”

Page 20 “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…

Theme 2: The Nature of Storytelling and Memory Storytelling linked to “confession”; punishment is reliving it as you remember

Page 36 “…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.”

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 couldn’t help it.” (O’Brien 11)

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.”

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

Page 20, Cont’d 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 posture…They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing.”