Tiny Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: An Analysis

Fear of Death
In the “Tiny Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien tells us a series of stories about soldiers in the Vietnam War. Through the entire book, fear of death hangs over on all of the soldiers. Everyone is afraid of death, including these American soldiers. They have to face the fact that death can come at any time, from any direction, without any warnings during the war. O’Brien tells us what materials they carry in the bags to illustrate how bad the situation is, from “P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent …” (O’Brien10) to “standard weapons M-16, M-60 and ammunitions.” (O’Brien16). We can see how much weight they carry on their shoulders in a physical sense. However, their hearts actually carry more weight than their shoulders in an emotional sense.
They all carried two different type of things; one reminds them of home and loved ones; “packets of

Lavender was shot in the head and fell on the floor with his heavy baggage. “He was dead weight. Kiowa, who saw it happen, said it was like watching a rock fall, or a big sandbag or something-just boom, then down.” It was a metaphor as the death of Lavender had brought a huge impact on them emotionally, like a rock fell in their heart. Their moods shifted from nonchalant to shock “Oh shit, Pat Kiley said, the guy’s dead. The guy’s dead, he kept saying, which seemed profound—the guy’s dead. I mean really.” (O’Brien28) At that time, they realized that death is real.
As the war continued, they moved from town to town, they lost comrades and they killed other people. They kept themselves in right conditions, to not breakdown as the more fear of death had taken their hope away. They knew none of them could show their weakness, because if one person went down, others would have been down. They had to support each other against their enemy, the fear of