{"id":5110,"date":"2019-12-13T20:57:26","date_gmt":"2019-12-14T00:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=5110"},"modified":"2022-03-11T16:56:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T20:56:48","slug":"henry-dobbins-the-things-they-carried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/henry-dobbins-the-things-they-carried\/","title":{"rendered":"Henry Dobbins (The Things They Carried) + His Lucky Pantyhose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Who is Henry Dobbins in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em>? What are the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/defining-moments-in-life\/\">defining moments<\/a> for his character?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Henry Dobbins is a soldier in Alpha Company, a unit of the U.S. Army in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/tim-obrien-vietnam\/\">Vietnam War<\/a>, in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em>. Henry Dobbins is a sentimental man who carries his girlfriend\u2019s pantyhose, tied around his neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ll cover the most important scenes involving Henry Dobbins in <em>The Things They Carried.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Henry Dobbins in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em>: <strong>Soldier Jesus<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Author O\u2019Brien recalls a man in Alpha Company, Henry Dobbins in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em>, as being highly drawn to sentimentality. Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend\u2019s pantyhose around his neck, but not out of a sexual predilection. For Dobbins, the pantyhose were a talisman, a good-luck charm, something that made him feel protected. Like Cross\u2019s pebble from Martha, they were a link to a world away from the war.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>O\u2019Brien observes how powerful a hold superstition exerted on all the men <strong>in circumstances where life and death seemed to hang so precariously and randomly in the balance<\/strong>. Thus, even the other men came to accept the pantyhose\u2019s mysterious protective power, seeing how Henry Dobbins seemed to glide through the mayhem of war without so much as a scratch. Once, he stepped on a landmine that, miraculously, failed to explode. Another time, Henry Dobbins in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em> was trapped in a gunfire battle with no cover, but simply slipped the pantyhose over his nose and somehow came out unscathed. Even after his girlfriend broke up with him, Dobbins believed that the pantyhose retained their power. \u201cNo sweat,\u201d O\u2019Brien recalls him saying, \u201cThe magic doesn\u2019t go away.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Henry Dobbins (<em>The Things They Carried<\/em>) &amp; the Monk<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One day, the company discovered a pagoda where they met two monks. The deeply religious and (atypically for Alpha Company) scrupulous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/kiowa-the-things-they-carried\/\">Kiowa<\/a> was uneasy about going in, believing that it was sacrilegious for the men to enter such a holy place. Still, the men camped out there for a week, as the monks waited on the soldiers. They took a special liking to Henry Dobbins in <em>The Things They Carried<\/em>, dubbing him \u201cSoldier Jesus.\u201d The serenity of the place and the kindness of the monks even inspired Dobbins to consider leading a spiritual life after the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>O\u2019Brien recalls Henry Dobbins as being more drawn to the idea of being nice to people as a minister rather than grappling with any weighty theological considerations, remembering Dobbins saying, <strong>\u201cAll you can do is be nice. Treat them decent, you know?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who is Henry Dobbins in The Things They Carried? What are the defining moments for his character? Henry Dobbins is a soldier in Alpha Company, a unit of the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War, in The Things They Carried. Henry Dobbins is a sentimental man who carries his girlfriend\u2019s pantyhose, tied around his neck. We&#8217;ll cover the most important scenes involving Henry Dobbins in The Things They Carried.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-5110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-things-they-carried","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Henry Dobbins (The Things They Carried) + His Lucky Pantyhose - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Henry Dobbins (The Things They Carried) is a soldier in Alpha Company, a unit of the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War. 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