Blog #3 Assingment: Option A

In the story of “The Things They Carried,” there are several interesting characters and they have different personalities and play various roles. The most interesting character for me is Henry Dobbins who was a big man. Because he is such a big man, he carries extra rations. The things he carried such as “M-60 which weighed 23 pounds unloaded, but which was almost always loaded and between 10 and 15 pounds of ammunition draped in belts across his chest and shoulders, (395)” is heavier than the things carried by others. In this point, Henry Dobbins was not only just a big man in the story, but also a responsible person who carried the heaviest thing for the team. He likes to eat that he carried canned peaches in heavy syrup over pound cake in his extra rations which seems not related to the team but is important for him. In addition, “Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose wrapped around his neck as a comforter, (396)” the reason he carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose is that this pantyhose a kind of symbol that Henry Dobbins was missing and do not want to leave his girlfriend. Henry Dobbins was an optimist in the war though he and his comrade in arms were kicking corpse and cutting off thumbs. “Cut, said Henry Dobbins” and “They made themselves laugh (401)” shows Henry was optimistic and tried to encourage his team after Ted Lavender’s death.

Henry Dobbins in Tim O’ Brien’s story is a flat character because he only reveals two personality traits which did not change during the course of the story. Henry Dobbins shows us a character of responsibility and optimist which remain throughout the story; the big man was responsible for the heaviest thing that is what we can see from beginning of the story and did not change at the end of story. I choose Henry Dobbins because he was a positive character in the story. Though the story is not much about him, he represented a character with responsibility and optimism for his tasks during facing the cruel war. His personalities are what I have to study for my future life since I am still a student now and do not have any heavy burden of life. I could draw inspiration about how to handle the stressful life in future from Henry Dobbins’ positive attitudes when he was facing the war.