What, therefore, is O’Brien attempting to convey? The story is imbued with heavy irony, a weight that sends conflicting images to the reader and causes one to examine the realms of necessity. The entirety of the narrative consists of the objects and emotions that these men carry on a daily basis, things that they bear in order to ensure the survival of their bodies, minds, spirits, and sanities. Yet all of these things contribute to death and destruction. Ted Lavender collapses under the weight of a bullet, as well as all of the supplies on his back and the fear in his heart.
Another character who is clearly hurting under the weight of the things he feels he has to carry is Lieutenant Cross. Cross bears the emotional burden of his love for Martha, a love that he believes interferes with his duties and induces feelings of guilt and responsibility for the death of one of his men. In the end, Cross must leave the burden of his love behind, as he realizes that it is not sustaining him, but destroying him. The unrequited love is simply too much for him to bear, so he burns Martha’s letters and resigns to get rid of the pebble (23-4). This scene is faintly reminiscent of Christ at Gesthemane, for Cross is alone and suffering great anxiety of spirit as his friends sleep. The reader clearly sees the cross of emotional desolation and guilt that rests across his shoulders. With this scene of Cross’s recognition of the crushing burden of his love for Martha, O’Brien reveals the symbolism of Cross’s name. Fittingly, Cross is the one to realize the magnitude of the burdens that the men carry. “It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do.” (24) His name obviously symbolizes his own personal burdens that have been masked as “necessary,” as well as those of the men who trudged alongside of him.
O’Brien takes the idea of necessity and examines it from every angle, finally coming to the conclusion that the magnitude of the things that men may think they need can become too much to bear. He examines not only the great physical strain that is placed on the men as they carry their supplies on their backs, but the mental and emotional difficulties that weigh them down immeasurably. His portraits of Ted Lavender and Lieutenant Cross particularly display these intangible burdens: Ted through the vague description of his apparently troubled lifestyle and his own tragic downfall, and Cross through his elaborately described love and anguish that he feels about Martha. O’Brien makes a statement when he allows Ted to die while Cross lives, possibly implying that in order to survive in a desperate situation, one must actually let go of some of the things that he may think he needs to fill the emptiness in his own life. He makes us question our own lives and the things that we may think we need to live, and precisely what holes they may fill. Cross’s insight near the end of the story is profound; it is indeed sad, the things that people feel they must bear. Perhaps when one feels the most needy is the time when he must free himself from those excesses that weigh him down and become like the soldiers in their dreams; “they gave themselves over to lightness, they were carried, they were purely borne” (22).