In “The Things They Carried,” the items soldiers physically carry with them during the war characterize each of them and resonate with symbolism. These items signify not only the soldiers’ rank and personality but also the weight they carry emotionally and psychologically. In this way, the act of carrying something takes on both a literal and figurative meaning:

To carry something was to hump it, as when Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps. In its intransitive form, to hump meant to walk, or to march, but it implied burdens far beyond the intransitive (3).

Jimmy carries a photo of Martha as well as the symbolic weight of his love for her. Ted Lavender carries “34 rounds” (6) of ammunition, but also his deep fear of war and death; it is because of this combination of literal and figurative weight that the narrator says, “he was shot and killed outside Than Khe, and he went down under an exceptional burden” (6).

The close relationship between literal and metaphorical carrying continues beyond the first story. In “Friends,” Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen make a pact to kill one another if the other is ever seriously injured.