Immediately after reading the first paragraph of the story, I knew that although it is about American soldiers at the Vietnamese war, it is mostly about just how very detached from the war, both emotionally and physically, these soldiers were.
There was very little about the actual war itself in the story. O'Brien instead focused his attention on the things each soldier carried. The tone throughout the story is light, although there were moments when the author reminds you of the gravity of the situation these soldiers were in. The protagonist is probably First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross because he is in both the beginning and ending of the story, and we are given more insight into his mind than any of the others. The story begins with Jimmy Cross apparently more focused on his love for Martha than on the war. This becomes the prevailing theme of the story - soldiers who were risking their lives, but whose thoughts were occupied with anything but the war. Jimmy Cross' thoughts were forever with Martha, and "he had difficulty keeping his attention on the war (345)."
The second paragraph of the story started with "The things they carried were largely determined by necessity." This line is funny especially after I read of the things these soldiers carried - along with the vital things like canteens of water and C rations, the soldiers carried cigarettes, packets of Kool-Aid, chewing gum, and other things you would not normally expect soldiers in such a heavy war to carry.
The title becomes clear to me as I continued reading the story. It seems that the things each soldier carried reflected their individual personalities and characteristics. Hygienically-inclined Dave Jensen, for instance, carried "a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-sized bars of soap he'd stolen on R&R in Sydney, Australia (341)." Religious, spiritual Kiowa carried "an illustrated New Testament (342)" and his grandfather's hunting hatchet, and Mitchell Sanders carried condoms with him.
I think the author is trying to say that these soldiers are really just kids at war. There is a line in the story that captures this perfectly - when Lieutenant Cross was looking at the tunnel, he could not help but think of Martha instead of the dangers that could be awaiting the soldiers. He was "just a kid at war, in love. He was twenty-four years old. He couldn't help it." Although this line refers to Jimmy particularly, I think it applies to the soldiers under his command (except for the love part). They make light of their situation at war, and are even able to make jokes. It is not the intense, 24/7 life-threatening situations we see in Hollywood movies depicting the war.
The soldiers in the story are brave, but it is not courage. "Rather, they were too frightened to be cowards (353)." Other than the physical objects, they carried their fear inside of them and maintained tough, fierce exteriors when really, they were scared and were just trying to endure each day to the best of their abilities.
The end of the story finds Lieutenant Jimmy Cross realizing that Martha never loved him. Whether this is actually true is never imparted to the reader, but this epiphany changes his character. This "loss" hardens his heart, and he decided to himself to "not tolerate laxity. He would show strength, distancing himself."
Jimmy Cross somehow lost meaning in his life when he lost his love. I interpret the quote to mean that as long as the soldiers still find meaning in their lives, whether through devotion to religion like Kiowa, or through the love of food like Henry Dobbins, they could never be fully attentive to the war because there are more important things in life for them. The war is really just a duty, and a duty the soldiers were not particularly interested in.
This line captures the whole meaning in the story: "It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do. (354)."
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