The Things They Carried Blog 3

On page 78, Rat Kiley starts to release his anger on a VC Water Buffalo, The next 3 pages were incredibly hard to read. He shoots all of its legs and its nose and jaw. Rat made sure not to kill the buffalo and cause it great pain, I wasnt sure if he was treating the buffalo as revenge from Lemon's death. However, the whole time, the buffalo didnt moan or even try to resist, it didnt even make a sound. I found this incredibly disturbing.

The Things They Carried Blog 2

"They didn't know history...but no matter, it was a war to stop the communists" (Bottom of page 45)
Before the war started, people didnt know the history of Vietnam. No one knew about the french colonization of Vietnam, or Diem's tyranny. All America cared about was fighting the communists. America didnt care why they were turning to communism which shows our ignorance at the time. However, the students America and the would be drafts were not so ignorant and strongly opposed the war by burning their draft cards or in the case if Tim, try to run to Canada to avoid being sent to Vietnam.

The Things They Carried blog 1

"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."(pg21)
The book describes what they carried in a very poetic form. From guns to pictures of their love back in America. However, this passage describes intangible carry-ons, such as fear, and love. In reality these would weigh the most over any object you had to carry, because we are controlled by our emotions, no matter how we hide it, its always in our minds, repeating the same thoughts of death going over and over in your mind wondering if your gonna get shot. Fear plays a big role in Vietnam, it secretly controls all the soldiers.