Matthew Korzec’s Reviews > The Things They Carried > Status Update

Anne Mary was brought to a medical outpost by Fozzie (her boyfriend). She starts as a naive, dainty girl, but transforms into a battle-hardened warrior. She becomes one with the land and adopts the ways and traditions of Vietnam. It serves as an allegory to the way that soldiers enter into the Vietnam war and how that adapt and change throughout their time at war.

Curt Lemon was killed after stepping on a land-mine. His body was flung into a tree and stayed there in chunks. Tim and another soldier had to scale the tree and retrieve the chunks of his body. Rat Kiley sent a heartfelt letter to Lemon’s sister, but she never responded. Rat then proceeds to torture a baby water buffalo as a form of therapy for the trauma of losing a friend and his sister not responding.

Tim thought about fleeing the country and heading towards Canada. In fact, he did drive towards Canada and made it to the Tip Top Lodge in Minnesota. He met a man there named Elroy Berdahl. Elroy acts as a sort of silent guide for Tim. He brings him on a boat for fishing where they cross the Canadian border and get within 20 yards of land. Tim feels like a coward by going to Canada, and returns home and goes to war.

They carry a lot if shit. Ted Lavender died suddenly and Kiowa says that he just dropped dead. Lt Cross feels heavy guilt for Lavender’s death because he was daydreaming about how much he loves Maria.