What the Men Are Carrying

So all the anecdotes in the novel are starting to make sense. The characters in the novel all have stories, right? And they're sharing their stories with O'Brien, so he's sharing all their emotional baggage stuff. I think I said in one of my first blogs that the weight of the soldiers' equipment represents the emotional burdens that the soldiers carry. By telling O'Brien their stories and feelings and reactions, they ask him to share their burdens. They also make it his resposibility to pass their stories on to the world. As an author, he has a larger audience than they do. This gives him the ability to make the world aware of their trials and battles and personal issues in Vietnam and after they returned like with O'Brien's own issues such as when his daughter asked him why he writes war stories and he answered "Of course not" on page 125.