The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: An Analysis

The Things They Carried serves as a primary source of Vietnam War culture: a narrative of the men who lived it. O’Brien’s life alone is able to shed light on multiple facets of the larger story of this period of America, including the controversy of the war and its draft, the extreme conditions faced in Vietnam, and the stresses put on soldiers during this time, among other things. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien illustrates the turmoil surrounding the war in Vietnam, with a perspective transitioning from a college graduate with anti-war leanings to a drafted soldier in the chaos of guerilla warfare to a veteran reflective of the shocking events that transpired in those jungles. Through peripheral narration and first-person points

Because of the very short time between graduating from college and receiving the draft notice, the letter must have been accompanied by some shock value because students were exempt from the draft. The new graduates probably had yet to fathom that the draft was now an entirely real possibility for them, despite their ambitious plans for the future that may have already been established, like in O’Brien’s case. He explains, “Stupidly… I assumed that the problems of killing and dying did not fall within my special province” (39). Coping with this shock involved anger, bargaining, and the planning of possible escape routes. The anger felt by O’Brien included suggesting the LBJ’s daughters go off to serve in the war instead, since LBJ thought the fighting was so necessary. The escape routes were most typically burning the letter or running away to Canada. In his case, Canada was temptingly feasible due to his proximity to the

In addition to making them think twice about the readings, this will likely cause them to think about the book’s events long after they are finished reading it. It is in these chapters about storytelling that metafiction comes into play— O’Brien has explicitly stated that The Things They Carried is a work of fiction, but not entirely fictional, thus sparking curiosity as to where the fiction ends and truth begins. Certain aspects of war stories, he says, must be embellished in order for the audience to achieve the desired emotion, however the parts being embellished are generally not what is expected, those of shocking violence, but the smaller details. This is also not surprising considering the great amount of time that has passed since the actual war. According to the philosophy of the novel, these embellishments are necessary in order to get the intended point across and instill the story’s resonance with its readers, which makes sense considering the huge emotional barrier between the soldiers who actually experienced this and the civilians who are merely reading their words. The successful communication of these aspects are, most often, more important than the concrete