The Aloneness That Filled Him With Love

"He wanted to sleep inside her lungs and breathe her blood and be smothered."

Who says you can't find poetry in prose? While I was reading "The Things They Carried," I made it my goal to locate a few poetic devises; if any at all. To my surprise, I was able to find a few. The story focuses on the literal items that each soldier carried. The items vary and range from lucky pebbles to rabbit's feet to marijuana and human thumbs. With every object mentioned, the weight of each is precisely measured like anaphora or a refrain at the end of a verse of poetry. It is something constant. However, the figurative burdens, guilt and fear that each man carries weigh more than any rifle or radio.

If the relationship between Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his idealized Martha were updated on Facebook, it would undoubtedly appear as "It's Complicated." However, there is something poetic about Jimmy's love as he struggles to hang on to the hope that his illusion of Martha will one day materialize. It reminded me of a few Elders in my mission who carried around pictures of girls in their wallets only to find that their weekly e-mails form said girls fell short of their lofty expectations.

Love, in a sense, is poetry. This idea is represented by Martha who, in fact, is a poet. Her letters are well crafted and beautiful, but they fail to pluck the metaphorical heart strings that lie dormant within Jimmy's conflicted soul. In the end, Jimmy comes to terms with reality and gives up on his hope of love. His guilt over the death of Ted Lavender awakens him to a renewed awareness of his duties as Platoon Leader and he no longer relies on love for his sustenance. With this comes the death of poetry in "The Things They Carried."