Physical, emotional and spiritual burden are related because these are things the soldiers carry. The physical pain is obviously prescenced through the wounds and all the weight they carry on their shoulders due to the numerous amount of supplies they need for the field. The emotional burden though, is a spiritual weight that is represented through all the memories, fears, and traumas they carry through their battle. It is stated, “they carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love... “ (O’Brien, 1990, p. 20). This reflects how each soldier has a different past that marks their spirit, and they carry with these different emotions.

2) What does it mean to be a human if thinking through Tim O'Brean's lens of perception based on the first chapter? What does it mean to be a human in your personal opinion? 

Through Tim O’Brean’s lens, being a human is experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions. It is fearing, loving, fighting, laughing, crying... Each soldier has their own story and past traumas that they have to deal with throughout their journey. challenge and persevering are importan aspects of humanity. Traumas and emotional scars are things humans carry with, each building a unique story. Being a human is dealing with these and leaving a print in this world. 

2- Obviously Tim shows us human needs in the chapter. As humans in difficult situations, in this case jimmy going to war, expresses how they carry all physical and mental burden. Jimmys need to get back with his loved one and many more  

A burden is a weight you must carry, be it physical or emotional most people want to get rid of their burdens. A physical burden is related to a emotional burden because the more you carry the physical burden the more emotional it becomes. This is because the burden becomes a part of your life, and of your mind; even when you stop carrying the burden physically it will take you a long time to put it down emotionally.

 

2) What does it mean to be a human if thinking through Tim O'Brien's lens of perception based on the first chapter? What does it mean to be a human in your personal opinion?

Tim O’Brien sees humans as the things they carry. He believes that humans are their burdens, their emotional and physical burdens. In my opinion humans are tools, tools for each other; to be used to either make or destroy; the same way a tool can break if overused or rust if underused so can a human. The difference with tools and humans is that you feel empathy for humans.

 

The biggest physical burden is the physical weight one must endure. The items they carried are part of this burden. In the novel there are many relations between the platoons. This relation best shows the emotional connection to people and how it hurts them to lose this physical connections with them. A perfect example is Jimmy Cross when Ted Lavender was killed. He blamed himself and he realized this physical bond Jimmy Cross had with his platoon was greater than he would imagine. I say this because after the war, when Jimmy Cross visits O’Brien he still feels as if is his fault Ted Lavender died. The spiritual burden relates to the physical burden in the sense that when you lose someone, and you really felt something for them you drive yourself to be more spiritual.

 

2) What does it mean to be a human if thinking through Tim O’Brian’s lens of perception based on the first chapter? What does it mean to be a human in your personal opinion? 

 

Being a human in O’Brian’s perception is having the courage of moving forward. It is being able to carry yourself up and leave human tethers behind to continue with life. Being human in my opinion is having emotion. It is feeling sorrow and joyfulness to enjoy your time with the people you love while you still have them.

The physical burden is anything that is connected to the exterior part of life. In the novel, it’s represented in a literal context as what the soldiers carried in their backpacks. It draws a symbolism and parallelism between a person’s inner spiritual battles with what is just superficial. From my perspective, everything physical is connected to some inner morality, weakness, or strength an individual has. In the case of “The Things, They Carried” according to O’Brien any physical burden they had was there for a reason. It created a balance between physical and emotional at the same time being drawn together. For example when it says “They were tough. They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing --these were intangibles, but intangibles had their mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice. (..) They carried reputations. (O’Brien, 1990, p. 20). That's what it conveys. How they had to be taught and stay perseverant, even though they were terrified, they did it for their loved ones.

2) What does it mean to be a human if thinking through Tim O'Brien's lens of perception based on the first chapter? What does it mean to be a human in your personal opinion?

Through O’Brien’s perception being human is about going forwards even if it kills you. To be grateful for being alive even though one’s person has their demons to fight with. Through his point of view, he expresses how the soldiers carried their lives, how they had to be taught to survive but at the same time suffered everything a normal human being would in a war. 

“The Things they carried were largely determined by necessity” (O’Brien, 1990, p.2) and “They all carried ghosts” (O’Brien, 1990, p.9) They saw death in their hands and grief first hand. His perception of being human is about holding on as a person, and not giving up. From my point of view, human existence is about a journey and looking forward. Life itself is about following a journey and confronting obstacles.

Physical burden and emotional burden are immensely related. The soldiers carry both  physical and emotional burdens . Of course, physical is represented through the wounds and battle injuries but, emotional are more interesting. Emotional or spiritual burden only complies with mental capacity, either old memories or new scary ones. Mental burden is way heavier than physical, physical will pass but mental is forever. 

2) What does it mean to be a human if thinking through Tim O'Brean's lens of perception based on the first chapter? What does it mean to be a human in your personal opinion? 

As humans, we are very different from all other animals. Of course, we rely on the same building blocks as any other. All animals are social, but humans are so social that we have built specific civilizations for a distinct culture. Looking through Tim O'Brean's lens, I would say that being human means taking your experience wherever you go. Knowing that you will never be able to clear your past self, needing to take into account all your previous experiences before taking action.

2- O’Brien’s perception of being a human is going through life and being able to go through pain and happiness and still keep moving forward with your experiences or burdens. Being able to create memories and putting yourself out there to create your own character.