Kyle Krahenbuhl
Doc Z
SLCC period 4
May 17, 2011
The Things They Carried
My big question for Senior Lit this year is what is the human experience? I more specifically focus on the relationships we all have in our life and the pursuit of happiness. The Things They Carried is a book about the Vietnam war and a platoon that exists in it. The book starts out talking about all the things that the soldiers carry and how much each individual thing weighs. Through that process the author Tim O’Brian describes the individual characters well. One the characters are introduced you start feeling the relationships with the soldiers in the platoon. Then the element of death gets thrown into the mix and you get to see how the different people react when their very own peers die. Another key element in the book is the relationships the soldiers have with people back home. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is one of the more obvious examples, when he keeps thinking about his love Martha, who he has really on dated once. The book is a great war novel and the relationships make it great.
This book works with my big question well. The relationships in the book show how important other people are too all of us and how they keep us going at all times. Relationships make being a human excellent and even some loners will think about relationships and past relationships all the time. Whether not it’s family, friends, or acquaintances, the bonds you form with others can not be replaced and filled in with anything else. People should savor there relationships more and never just expect someone to treat you well.
