The Things They Carried Journal Analysis

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Journals Bloom, Harold. Tim O'Brien's The things they carried. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. Print. Entry 1 In the first chapter titled “The Things They Carried,” the author said that they carried the physical items like ponchos and ammunition, but what resonated with me was how he described the intangible things that each of them carried. They carry the life that they left back in the United States. I can’t imagine what it would be like to leave the life that’s lived for eighteen years to fight for something that’s not even clearly understood. I think the first time I read the chapter I didn’t think abou the ages of these boys; they are really boys not yet men. They are eighteen and nineteen years old. That is my age. I am not a soldier. I cannot even pick a college to go to and boys my age were fighting a war. It blows …show more content…

He realized at work that everything he was doing was really temporary because in a few weeks he would be out of his environment in a foreign place. He left and drove to a cabin right beneath the border of Canada. One of the main plot points that stuck out to me was whenever he met the man on the Rainy River who never asked a question, but was there to support him anyway. It stuck out because I have had someone like that in my life, and I also hope to be that person for someone else one day. That calm and reassuring person I had in my own life I met through a summer camp. I had been the year before as well and had the same counselor. The first night he told me that he could tell something was different and that I wasn’t smiling as much. He never pressed or asked why, but he would talk to me each night. On the very last night I said that my family had been in a murder and his whole face went white. He didn’t realize that what he was helping me through was so

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