One - The Things They Carried

I, for one, am quite the fan of puns, and while reading the first chapter of The Things They Carried, I found that I could scarcely contain my delight at O'Brien's clever wordplay with the common verb "to carry." Naturally, he uses the most common meaning of the aforementioned verb when he lists the things the troops actually physically carried, "P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy," et cetera (p. 2). However, he also lists many of the things that the men do not actually carry, but still seem to weigh down on them mentally, specifically the emotions of First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. He carries his love (or rather, love of the idea of love) for Martha. Much as a heavy object will physically restrain and weigh down upon a person, Lt. Cross's feelings hold him back, distracting him and making him sluggish and unable to lead effectively. Rather than focusing on keeping his men alive, he ponders whether dear Martha is a virgin. And so, after the death of Ted Lavender, he elects to ditch the dead weight of his unrequited love so he can carry his troops instead, which, if my count is correct, makes the third definition of "carry" used in this first chapter. Clever wordplay indeed.

This is a bad pun.

On an entirely unrelated note, I was absolutely positive that Cross would turn out to be the protagonist of this tale, but in reality that didn't quite play out, which became fairly evident in the next chapter.