“Stockings”
Some people wish on rabbitś feet. Others carry lucky coins and even lucky underwear. Henry Dobbins carried his girlfriend́s silk stockings. “He liked putting his nose in the nylon and breathing in the scent of his girlfriend́s body; he liked the memories this inspired…They gave access to a spiritual world, where things were soft and intimate, a place where he might someday take his girlfriend to live.”(129) These stockings also “ kept him safe.” (129) He seemed to avoid all of the usual occurrences of war: mines, wounds, and sickness, and the guys “came to appreciate the mystery of it all.” (130) Henry never got the chance to take his girlfriend to his special place, because she broke up with him during the war. Some wondered whether or not he would continue to wear them and he did swearing that “ the magic doesńt go away.”(130)
Dobbins decisions makes me think that he was more practical than sentimental as they described him in the beginning. If you truly believe in something, virtually nothing should make you stop, and his split with his girlfriend didńt. Really, I think the stockings had less to do with his girlfriend than hope, courage, and strength in general. For, it was these things that actually got him through the war safely. Dobbins “invulnerability” wouldńt have let him get down by something like that-for it was a hard earned attribute, which, when used well, can seem just like magic.