Week 4: The things they carried
I read, The Things They Carried, for the lit circle. I found it very interesting. These men carried gear that was very heavy, but the emotional weight had to have been much heavier. I imagine the emotional weight lasted much longer, since it can never be 'taken off' like their gear. I have family members that served in Vietnam, and they have told very similiar stories...thus bringing this story to life and demonstrating its reality and trueness to what happened over there.
The part about the tunnel reminded me of Forest Gump where Forest enters the tunnel...I see that segment of the movie being exactly how O'Brien painted it in this story. Eerie really.
I imagine, too, that our men and women today that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan experience the same emotional burdens. We have heard on the new how they physically must carry all the equipment along with the flak jacket, so I suppose it goes without saying, they have/are experienced(ing) the same things. I don't read much...only when mandated...but this story is one that I am intending to go out and get from the library and read it all...or, I can probably borrow the one from someone at work.
It is so true when you talk about how they carried not only heavy physical things, but they carried heavy things mentally during and especially after the war. Still to this day it makes me respect these men and women so much more!
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