The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

Lt. Jimmy Cross carried letters from Martha, the girl he loved. She did not love him; he knew this, and yet it was thinking of Martha and looking at her photographs and letters that helped to remind him of home. Sometimes, his daydreams of Martha distracted him from patrol.

The other men in Alpha Company, we are told, carried many items of necessity. Henry Dobbins, a large man who liked to eat, carried extra rations. Dave Jensen "practiced field hygiene" and thus carried with him a toothbrush, dental floss, hotel soap, extra socks, and foot powder. Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers and dope. Mitchell Sanders carried condoms; Norman Bowker carried a diary. The medic, Rat Kiley, carried comic books. Kiowa, a Native American and a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament from his father, a Sunday school teacher, and a hunting hatchet from his grandfather. They all carried other necessities, such as jackets, 5-lb. helmets, pocketknives and canteens of water.

It is explained that to carry something is to "hump" it, and that almost everyone humped photographs. Jimmy Cross carried two pictures of Martha in his wallet. One was a snapshot signed "Love," though he knew she didn't really love him. The other was a photo from the yearbook of Martha playing volleyball. Seeing her legs in the volleyball picture reminded Lt. Cross of her knee, and of how he touched her knee one night as they watched Bonnie and Clyde. He remembers how that knee felt, even though she'd made him remove his hand, and he wishes he'd have carried her to her room, tied her up and touched her knee all night long. The photographs always made him think of things he should've done.

Some of the things they carried were due to rank and field specialty. As Lieutenant, Jimmy Cross carried a compass, maps, code books, binoculars - and the responsibility for his men's lives. Mitchell Sanders, the RTO, carried the 26-lb. PRC-25 radio. As the medic, Rat Kiley carries nearly 20 pounds of medical supplies, from morphine to plasma, with M&M's for the especially bad wounds. Henry Dobbins, being a large man, carried an M-60, 23 pounds unloaded. It was usually loaded, however, and Dobbins also carried between 10 and 15 pounds of ammunition. All of the men carried weapons of some sort, and most carried 25 rounds of ammo. They also carried grenades, and whatever they found along the way that could serve to help keep them alive.

Ted Lavendar was carrying 34 rounds when he was killed. Later, Kiowa said Lavendar fell like a dead weight under all he was carrying. Lt. Cross felt the pain of Lavendar's death, believing himself responsible. He felt he had been too distracted with thoughts of Martha.

The week before Lavendar was killed, Lt. Cross had received a letter from Martha that contained a pebble. She had found the pebble, she said, on the Jersey shoreline, where land meets water, where things "came together but were separate," and had picked it up for that reason. Lt. Cross began to carry the pebble with him "on march," usually under his tongue, and romanticize all the things he and Martha could be doing together. This sometimes distracted him from his duties.

The day Ted Lavendar was killed, the men were on a routine mission to search out and destroy the tunnel complexes in Than Khe. Before exploding the tunnels, someone would have to go in and search them. Nobody wanted this task, so they would draw numbers for it. On this day, Lee Strunk was chosen. Everyone waits for him to emerge, and Jimmy Cross begins to imagine the worst - until his thoughts turn to Martha. Suddenly, she is all he can think about. Finally, Lee Strunk emerges, and while he is celebrating, Ted Lavendar is shot in the head.

The narration switches again, and again we are told of things the soldiers carried. They carried superstitious items, such as rabbit's feet. Norman Bowker carried a thumb Mitchell Sanders had cut off of a dead Vietnamese boy. They carried items for special occasions; they carried essentials and non-essentials. Most importantly, they carried things metaphorically, such as their fears, their memories, the land - and each other.

After Lavendar's death, Lt. Cross led his men into the village of Than Khe and they destroyed everything. Later, when he was alone, he wept for the loss of Lavendar, for which he felt responsible, and for the loss of his idealistic vision of Martha. Somewhere else, Kiowa continues to retell the story of how Lavendar looked when he was shot, like dead weight. The men, as a group, have learned to cope with the constant death around them by de-sensitizing themselves with crude euphemisms and jokes.

The next day, Lt. Jimmy Cross burned his letters and photographs from Martha. He knew it was a senseless gesture; he could not burn away the blame he felt for Lavendar's death, and he had the letters memorized anyway. This was his way of burning away his civilian life - this would make him a soldier, he felt. After this, he became much more regimented, much more disciplined. He made the decision to be a leader.