Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the fictional work intertwined with a collection of stories creates the plot. Leaving the reader deciphering between truth and fiction, O’Brien relays the images of Vietnam and the horrors that accompany some of them. THerefore, the setting is mostly focused in Vietnam. The United States was involved in the Vietnam war from approximately 1961 to 1968. Within those seven years, the American casualties hit nearly 59,000 people. The men fighting in the war can account to the fact that despite bravery, the toll it took on their minds and bodies was immense.

Within this specific story, the characters are very well developed to portray the stories within the pages. Tim O’Brien is both the narrator and protagonist of the novel. His feeling of duty and loyalty to his country and family outweigh his own

politics, and therefore he decides to contribute to the fight in Vietnam and share his stories with others. Ever since the mortality of his friend Linda in their youth, he has learned that stories are told in order to keep memories alive. Jimmy Cross is a lieutenant of the Alpha Company, and is also therefore responsible for a specific group of men. Due to personal distractions, he feels he is responsible for some of their deaths which leaves him with an unwavering feeling of guilt. Bob “Kat” Riley was the doctor of the crew. The men had much respect for him, especially after he received mistreatment from another medic. In the end, the stress was too much for him and he purposely injured himself to be released from the war.
With these men, along with others, the plot was formed.

O’Brien takes the reader through a series of stories to help reveal the reality of the Vietnam War. Most literally, the “things” that the men carried defined their character. These things were both physical and mental. Every death that the men faced along the way left them another burden to carry, outweighing any heaviness their equipment would ever bear. O’Brien snakes through this novel trying to convey that true stories don’t necessarily come with happy endings. True stories are a raw account of truth and fiction, and the overall purpose is to distinguish between the two. O’Brien wants the reader to understand that if it matters to the moral of the story, it is real and important. He is very successful in achieving this reaction. By combining the truth with exaggeration, much thought must be put into deciding what’s important and gives reason as to why the story is actually being told. The larger theme is defining one’s real perception of truth. Something can have happened and yet not be considered true if the outcome didn’t have in depth meaning to the

reader.
Overall, O’Brien’s main reason for writing the book was to relieve memories. With this reason, the reader learns that sometimes the smallest details give the largest reaction.The style of writing that the book gave was very effective as to hold the reader’s attention. The short stories ensured that the reader would never become bored on one subject and would yearn to further be captivated by O’Brien’s accounts of the “story-truth.”