Summary Of The Things They Carried 'By Tim O' Brien

O’Brien “The Things They Carried” Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, is a remarkable work of fiction with a twist of non-fiction. The stories themselves are fictional, but the people behind them were real, the things they carried with them day to day were real, and most importantly the soldier’s experiences were real. The book gives a good description of what the men actually carried, things such as an M-60 machine gun weighing 23 pounds that was carried by a heavy machine gunner, (O’Brien, 5). On the other hand, it also gives an accurate description of internal pushes and emotions soldiers carried as well. Moreover, the reader can actually see themselves with their boots on the ground in Vietnam, being able to see what the soldiers were feeling and seeing through O’Brien’s description. The book opens by describing, though a series of short stories, what the soldier carried with them. O’Brien describes that each soldier carried something different, whether it was for the mission at hand, or

Moreover, the stories continue about Alpha company, which is the company of men being written about in the book. O’Brien talks about the friends he made such as “Rat”, whom he shared many memories with, (O’Brien, 64). He also talks about the differences in death, while it was tragic when someone in the company died, it was a different experience when it was a close friend. For instance, when Kiowa dies, it’s a tragedy for the entire company and many sat around and reminisce about the times they shared, (O’Brien, 163). Therefore, because this story of the Vietnam was it told like a novel, it has a very lifelike feeling to it. When Kiowa died it makes the reader feel the sadness that was in the air, almost as if the reader was present in Vietnam. As I stated earlier, it truly gives people who may not fully understand the tragedy that was