The Things They Carried: Anastasia Ditter

The Things They Carried is an interesting book. It has emotion, adventure and reality to it. Tim O'Brien is a good author. I find his style of writing creative and different from other books. It's interesting how he introduces us to these characters but then kind of lets go of them and doesn't keep them in the story as much throughout the book, such as Martha. It's also pretty interesting how he flashes back between events now and in the past. The death of Ted Lavender was sad. The case that his death happened so quickly and he didn't really get a chance to escape or prevent it from happening, is the worst part. I felt kind of bad for Jimmy for how he felt about Martha. The fact is that he really liked her just as he expresses it in the book when he says, "More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her" (O'Brien 1) and she didn't like him back was also kind of sad. He really wanted to be with her so I felt kind of bad for him, especially with the life he had and the war he was in, but its good that he moved on, with the death of Ted that had a huge effect on it and the realization of her not really being that into him. The items each of the men carried is symbolism in this book. It's their precious items and items that they cherish. There is also irony in the book, such as the chapters "Enemies" and "Friends," which is expressed by their titles. When Jensen and Strunk got in that fight they were violently opposed to one another although they are fighting on the same side of the war. Although, I could kind of understand why they got into that fight. I mean with all the stress and tough times their going through in this war, it's hard not to get annoyed of each other, but they didn't have to take their annoyance of each other a little to far. The entire book so far is pretty good and I'm curious as to what will happen next!