All 6 Uses

consequence
in
The Things They Carried
(Edited)

He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war.
Chpt 1

consequence = result
The average age in our platoon, I'd guess, was nineteen or twenty, and as a consequence things often took on a curiously playful atmosphere, like a sporting event at some exotic reform school.
Chpt 3
Hygiene became a matter of small consequence.
Chpt 9 *

consequence = importance
As a consequence I'd lost the natural counterpoint between the lake and the field.
Chpt 16

consequence = result
A moment of carelessness or bad judgment or plain stupidity carried consequences that lasted forever.
Chpt 17 *

consequences = results
Number two: there had to be consequences.
Chpt 20

Definitions:

(1) (consequence as in: a direct consequence of)
a result of something (often an undesired side effect)
(2) (consequence as in: of little consequence)
importance or relevance
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
In classic literature, consequential may refer to someone with too much feeling of self-importance as when Dickens wrote "Because he's a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-up-nosed peacock."

Self-consequence was used in a similar manner, but is more easily understood by modern readers since important is one of the modern senses of consequence.

Another classic sense of consequent that is similar to importance or significance refers to "material wealth or prominence" as when Jane Austen wrote: "They had each had money, but their marriages had made a material difference in their degree of consequence."