A Look At The Things They Carried English Literature Essay

Tim O’ Brien was born on October 1, 1946 in Austin, Minnesota and moved at the age of ten to Worthington, Minnesota. O’ Brien was involved within a series of anti-war demonstrations within his town and found sanctuary from the world in the county library. After graduating summa cum laude and earning his BA from McAllester College in St. Paul in 1968, O’Brien was drafted into the war. O’Brien was against the war in every aspect and the though of being separated from his family and friends drove him to run away from the draft and to head into Canada, knowing that he would be alienated from the country and listed as a wanted criminal for running from the U.S. Government. Upon arrival, O’Brien realized that the shame of these actions made it not worth doing and returned home to be drafted. He was drafted into the US Army Fifth Battalion, Forty-Sixth Infantry as a foot soldier from January, 1969 to March, 1970 under the command of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. In 1970, O’Brien was released back into the United States with a Purple Heart Award and entered graduate school at Harvard and later received an internship at the Washington Post. During the course of two summers, O’Brien worked as a reporter for the Washington Post. His writing career was launched in 1973 with the release of If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Send Me Home. In 1975, O’ Brien published his first novel, Northern Lights, which was followed by My Torrents of Spring, a novel inspired by Earnest Hemmingway. In 1978, O’Brien published the novel Going After Cacciato, which won the National Book Award. The novel, The Things They Carried (1990), was the winner of France’s prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. It was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Books Critics Circle Award. Other works of O’Brien’s consists of, In the Lake of the Woods (1994), Tomcat in Love (1998), and July, July (2002). Today, O’Brien is currently a visiting professor at Southwest Texas State University in the Creative Writing Program.

Form, Structure, Plot

The novel is organized into 22 chapters and is a total of 246 pages. Most chapters average about 10 pages while some are only 2 pages. The entire novel itself consists of flashbacks to the Vietnam War from the time of January 1969 to March 1970. Each chapter refers to a different point in time during O’Brien’s enrollment during the army with different stories. The chapters are not in chronological order; they in fact jump from one event to another. While some chapters are longer than others, some of the shorter chapters have a more powerful message. Although the novel is considered fiction, these events were inspired by true events in which O’Brien must recall upon. O’Brien himself clarifies numerous times how war stories are hard to verify as the truth because the memory of what happened and what seemed to have happened are difficult to separate in the memory. The way O’Brien structured his novel into a series of flashbacks gives the reader an image of what war may have been like. There are times throughout the novel when foreshadowing is used. On page 11, Lee Strunk is chosen to search a caved in tunnel by him-self, O’Brien writes, “He looked at the tunnel opening, then out across a dry paddy toward the village of Than Khe. Nothing moved. No Clouds or birds or people. As they waited, the men smoked and drank Kool-Aid, not talking much, feeling sympathy for Lee Strunk but also feeling the luck of the draw. (11)” O’Brien creates a scene of awkwardness and tension as the men wait for Strunk’s return. This passage foreshadows a death soon to follow and creates an image in which it describes the delicacy of the situation. Another use of foreshadowing that O’Brien uses is the titles that he chooses. Because every chapter is like a new story, the titles help the reader to change their mindset to a new subject. The novel contains multiple plots in which O’Brien separates into different chapters. Each chapter is composed of a different event in time during the war and explains the dilemmas, struggles, and hardships that the platoon had endured. In each event, the stories differ completely, from routine road checks to intense firefights, the stories are not in chronological order but the events build higher levels of intensity as the story progresses. In the beginning, O’Brien writes of the men in his platoon and the things they carried with them during the war. At first, O’Brien catalogues the items each man had brought: condoms, comic books, stationeries, photos, and other various material items. The opening of the novel is a collection of discontinuous events, O’Brien’s personal insights, and an introduction to his thoughts on death. The ending of the book comprises of O’Brien realizing how to keep the memories of the dead alive through the use of story telling. He believes that any person can be brought back to life spiritually and help loved ones deal with tragedy. O’Brien also writes of a former love that was lost early in his childhood and how, even today, he still manages to bring that girl back to life through his own wishful thinking.

Points of View

The novel is written from a 1st person narrative perspective. The novel is both a reminiscence written in a past tense and a recent perspective written in the present tense. During most of the novel, O’Brien recollects on the events during the war and writes of the events that had occurred with quotes from his platoon and himself, but towards the end of the novel, he writes in the present tense using “I” statements to explain his reasons for writing the novel. In the novel, O’Brien is at times the protagonist, but for the majority, he is simply an observer. Each chapter provides a new event that had occurred and O’Brien is writing simply of what he had witnessed at the time. However, in Chapter 22, “The Lives of the Dead,” O’Brien was the protagonist. The chapter followed him as he witnessed his first dead corpse and also when he writes of his first love as a child, all while explaining his reasons for writing the novel. At times during the novel, the points of view shift from the past tense into the present tense, usually when speaking of his platoon men and what he feels about it now. The effect O’Brien achieves with his point of view is that he allows the reader to experience the event almost first hand. O’Brien writes with vivid details and does not censor any of the violence or foul language that had occurred. He makes the story very real and his purpose for writing in this perspective was to allow the reader to see what O’Brien had kept inside of him throughout all these years. O’Brien wants the readers to understand what he had faced during the war, what he saw, felt, smelt, heard, and even tasted; so by writing in this perspective, he allows the reader not only to believe, but experience the war for themselves.

Characters

The characters in The Things They Carried consist of dynamic, static, flat, and round characters. All these characters are believable due to their acts throughout the novel. The men overcome the fear of war to not only survive, but help their friends stay alive as well. Many of the characters undergo their own tragedy that leads them to better themselves, emotionally and physically. These characterization traits are revealed by O’Brien writing about the flaws the characters had, and then later on in the novel, O’Brien would write of how these characters over came a problem, addiction, or heartbreak and concentrating on the war going on. An example would be when O’Brien writes of how Lieutenant Jimmy Cross overcame his lust for a woman at home by the name of Martha in order to take responsibility for his men. Each man had their own problem to overcome, but O’Brien generally wrote only about the men who helped him get through the war. The protagonists of the novel were Tim O’Brien himself, Jimmy Cross, Kiowa, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Henry Dobbins, and Norman Bowker. The antagonists were the Viet Cong, Vietnam, and their own internal struggles, mentally and physically. The role of the minor characters were used to transcend from one chapter to another or to show the nature of warfare by re-telling the story of those who had lived through it. The minor characters were often used as examples of how to overcome a tragedy or as a remembrance to those who had died.

A central character in the story is Jimmy Cross. His age is not revealed in the novel but he is a love stricken, admirable, and negligent. He is a young man around the age of 18 to 21 and is tall with a buzz cut who is slender. His role in the novel was as the Lieutenant over the platoon and he directed what the men would do. In this quote, “He went back to his maps. He was now determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence. It wouldn’t help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on he would comport himself as an officer,” (Page 25 Paragraph 1) Cross finally realizes the severity of his incompetence. After losing Lavender’s life, he decided to finally “man up” and take responsibility as a leader. He would no longer let the image of Martha blind his judgment and then proceeds in commanding how an army lieutenant should command; strict, confident, and reassuring.

Another central character was Tim O’Brien. During the war he was an unknown aged young adult, but as a writer, he is now forty-three. Tim is very wise, respectful, and timid at times. In the story, he was a scrawny, skinny, young white man. He was about average height with dark hair. O’Brien was a character who knew his sense of right and wrong and was very against the war himself. His function in the novel was as an observer, front line infantry, narrator, writer, and storyteller. The quote, “I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war,” (Page 61 Paragraphs 5) explains the extremely controversial situation that O’Brien had faced. Unlike most other men at the time, O’Brien was well educated and had a plan to go to graduate school. He was against the war and had faced his moral dilemma of running away to Canada to avoid the draft. While in Canada, when the time came to make his move, run away or say and fight, O’Brien chose to return home and be drafted because he felt the shame was too much to live with. This served as a new challenge that awaited O’Brien with lessons that would last him a lifetime.

Settings

The novel takes place during the time of January 1969 until March of 1970 in the country of Vietnam. The country is in complete chaos as the Vietnamese are battling the Americans. The constant danger of bombs and traps constantly roamed the jungle, the though that a VC could be hiding among the trees and shadows waiting for the perfect time to strike, and the feeling of loneliness that hung in the humid atmosphere was too much for any man to handle. Vietnam was described as “a living hell” with no sign of mercy. O’Brien obtains the ability to make an enemy of the whole country of Vietnam itself. In chapter 15, “Speaking of Courage,” the platoon is ambushed by mortar fire while taking refugee in a riverbank. In this chapter, Kiowa is hit by mortar fire and begins to sink down into the river and O’Brien describes the scene as if the river was the true enemy all along. Page 148 “The shells made deep slushy craters, opening up all those years of waste, centuries worth, and the smell came bubbling out of the earth,” O’Brien uses vivid imagery to allow the reader to imagine the scene as if they were there and actually witnessing and smelling the battle. Not only do the men have to defend themselves of mortar fire, but they must face an ordeal that challenges the men psychologically. The setting is used as a test of mental strength for the characters and O’Brien is able to reveal that the characters not only face a physical enemy, but also an enemy within their surroundings. The atmosphere that is created is a heavy ambiance of violence, fear, and danger; the continuous struggle for survival and the surprises that haunt every road, village, and shadows. How O’Brien creates this atmosphere is by his use of words and diction. On page 65, O’Brien writes of how Lee Strunk steps on a rigged mortar round one day while on a simple patrol. The explosion of a bomb takes the unit by surprise and when Lee Strunk is incapacitated of his left leg, O’Brien begins to describe the scene of blood, bones, and agony in detail, which gives the novel a dark atmosphere. The setting is very important to the novel due to its part in being the main location of warfare. Vietnam was a country of scrutiny during the Vietnam War and without the setting; the novel would lose all sense and directions of being a war story. Setting is very important to a novel or piece of writing and without Vietnam, this story would pointless.

Diction

In general, the author’s diction is neutral and colloquial. Neutral diction is the ordinary speech of an educated native speaker and an example can be found on page 245, the final paragraph, “I’m forty-three years old, and a write now, still dreaming Linda alive in exactly the same way.” This quote is not a formal statement and an ordinary educated speaker can easily comprehend this quote. There aren’t any jargons, simple words, or slang, which makes this a neutral diction. An example of colloquial diction can be found in various dialogues throughout the novel, but on page 28, a prime example can be found, “Well, I did – I burned it. After Lavender died, I couldn’t… This is a new one. Martha gave it to me herself.” Colloquial diction is defined as the casual or informal but correct language of ordinary speakers; it often includes common and simple words, idioms, slang, jargon, and contractions. This quote itself contains simple words and is a direct quote from Jimmy Cross’s dialogue. In the novel, O’Brien uses imagery in every chapter to describe each scene, along with a few ironic devices such as situational irony and verbal irony. The language in the novel is plain and strong. Often times, the story is being told in a normal, plain style, but when dialogue is being used, the language can be from foul to exclamatory. Dialogue is used almost in every chapter and is an example of colloquial diction. The men speaking use a combination of slang, jargon, common words, and casual speaking. The dialogue is much different from the narrator voice due to the fact that he does not speak in a colloquial diction, but in a neutral diction. During the war events, he usually does not speak and just writes what he observes, but at the end of the novel, his dialogues are usually well though out and have lessons that can be derived from them. The dialogue form character to character is in the colloquial diction and contains foul language, slang, and other colloquial examples. The men are speaking during a time of crises and the fear and anticipation can be read in their dialogue. Often, the men attempt to make humor in their dialogue to cover up their fear, but when death approaches, the humor is gone from the men and quiet overwhelms the platoon.

“She was dead. I Understood that. After all, I’d seen her body, and yet even as a nine-year-old I had begun to practice the magic of stories. Some I just dreamed up. Others I wrote down-the scenes and dialogue. And at nighttime I’d slide into sleep knowing that Linda would be there waiting for me. Once, I remember, we went ice-skating late at night, tracing loops and circles under yellow floodlights. Later we sat by a wood stove in the warming house, all alone, and after a while I asked her what it was like to be dead. Apparently Linda though it was a silly question. She smiled and said, “Do I look dead?” I told her no, she looked terrific. I waited a moment, then asked again, and Linda made a soft little sigh. I could smell our wool mittens drying on the stove.” (Page 244-245 paragraph 5)

“In the months after Ted Lavender died, there were many other bodies. I never shook hands-not that-but one afternoon I climbed a tree and threw down what was left of Curt Lemon. I watched my friend Kiowa sink into the muck along the Song Tra Bong. And in early July, after a battle in the mountains, I was assigned to a six-man detail to police up the enemy KIAs. There were twenty-seven bodies together, and parts of several others. The dead were everywhere. Some lay in piles. Some lay alone. One, I remember, seemed to kneel. Another was bent from the waist over a small boulder, the top of his head on the ground, his arms rigid, the eyes squinting in concentration as if he were about to perform a handstand or somersault. It was my worst day at the war. For three hours we carried the bodies down the mountain to a clearing alongside a narrow dirt road. We had lunch there, then a truck pulled up, and we worked in two-man teams to load the truck. I remember swinging the bodies up. Mitchell Sanders took a man’s feet, I took the arms, and we counted to three, working up momentum, and then we tossed the body high and watched it bounce and come to rest among the other bodies. (Page 242-243 Paragraphs 4)

In these two passages from the novel, O’Brien uses a neutral diction to write his story. How diction helps define character is that it allows the reader to witness at first hand the amount of respect a person may have. O’Brien could have used colloquial diction in these two passages about death and pain, but instead he addresses the situation in a manner or respect. How diction sets the tone is by using imagery and detail to allow the readers to envision the scene. As the passages move into more detail, the diction allows the reader to comprehend O’Brien’s work, allowing a better connection to the novel. The tone from these two passages can be summed up as sad and hopeful; sad in the part of policing the bodies of the dead into a truck and hopeful in part of reliving a memory of an old love.

Syntax

The sentences in the novel are almost all simple sentences. The length is usually 5-10 words with the occasion 15-30 words sentences. The level of formality is casual, due to the novel being created to emphasize the life style during the war with the use of slang, vulgar diction, and profanity. The long sentences are generally used to describe an entire event or used to provide imagery to the reader. The short concise sentences are used to make quick statements and to achieve the main point quickly. The short sentences that he uses range from 5-10 words. Fragments are used occasionally, usually only in dialogue to express incomplete thoughts. Rhetorical questions are also used only in dialogue from one character to another. Repetition is not used in the novel at all and the only identified parallel structure is when O’Brien alludes back into the past to provide insight to the reader. The sentences in the novel are periodic with loose sentences being identified within spoken dialogue. The sentence pattern does not contain much variety and usually takes form as a short sentence for straight facts, long sentences to describe scenes of imagery, and loose sentences with spoken dialogue. The entire novel is written in a neutral to colloquial range of diction and O’Brien uses a lot of slang, vulgar diction, and profanity in his work. How this creates a rhythm and flow is that with the use of so many casual words, the reader can easily read the novel without much trouble, which provides the readers a steady flow of common language. The rhythm also allows the readers to read the novel quickly and with ease.

The effect that O’Brien is creating with the use of syntax is pausing the reader by the use of commas and short sentences. With the use of short sentences and commas, O’Brien provides the reader time to shortly stop and build the scene inside of their imagination. By doing this, the reader can efficiently imagine the novel as the book progresses, just like a movie made in the readers mind. With the use of short sentences, O’Brien can express a clear concise though straight into the reader which allows for a quicker understanding of a character’s current status, mood, or circumstances. With the use of long sentences, O’Brien uses vivid imagery to provide information in detail, which allows the reader to use their own five senses to paint their own ideas of the scenes being described.

Concrete Detail/Imagery

An example of the sense “Vision” is “The upper lip and gum and teeth were gone. The man’s head was cocked at a wrong angle, as if loose at the neck, and the neck was wet with blood.” (Page 126 Paragraph 5) An example of the sense “Smell” can be found on page 145, “…a dead-fish smell- but it was something else, too. Finally somebody figured it out. What this was, it was a shit field. The village toilet.” Examples of the senses “hearing” and “taste” is “…And then he lay still and tasted the shit in his mouth and closed his eyes and listened to the rain and explosions and bubbling sounds.”(Page 149 Paragraphs 4) An example of the sense “feeling” is “I was shot twice. The first time, out by Tri Bihn, it knocked me against the pagoda wall, and I bounce and spun around and ended up on Ray Kiley’s lap…I felt wobbly…(Page 198 Paragraphs 1)

The imagery used serve as a function to allow the readers to connect with the story. By the use of these descriptive strategies, O’Brien hopes to create an image in the mind of his readers that would allow them to experience the story as if they were actually there. The vivid imagery would allow the readers to put themselves in that situation and take in the story as an actual event. By creating details with the five senses, the readers would understand what the troops had smelled, touched, saw, tasted, and heard; the cries of pain from their fallen comrades, the smell of shit from a nearby river, the feeling of pain as a bullet penetrates your skin, and the visions of war that consumed them all. It’s the concrete detail that allows a reader to truly connect to a story and without them, the reader can only be left with an ambiguous imagination of what war may have been like.

Symbolism

The novel The Things They Carried was highly symbolic. The items that the men within the platoon had carried symbolized home and comfort. Each man had a unique item with them in the war that provided them with comfort and reassurance. These physical items carried the men through all of the hardships they endured by giving them a peace of mind and hope of returning to their former lives.

To Jimmy Cross, letters from Martha symbolized unknown love. Cross was in love with this woman who had no idea of his true feelings. He would”…Unwrap the letters, hold them with the tips of his fingers, and spend the last hour of light pretending. He would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire. He would sometimes taste the envelope flaps, knowing her tongue has been there. (Page 1 Paragraph 1)” The condom carried by Mitchell Sanders (Page 3) symbolized the love of a woman, while the comic books brought by Rat Kiley (Page 3) symbolized the comfort of youth found inside of every man.

Another major symbol in the novel is the field in Vietnam where Kiowa died. O’Brien reflects on this piece of earth as the place where apart of his soul was encased for 20 years. From the time of the night when Kiowa was sucked underneath the mud until 20 years later when he visited with his daughter, O’Brien said he felt it was “hard to find any real emotion. It simply wasn’t there. After that long night in the rain, I’d seemed to grow cold inside, all the illusions gone, all the old ambitions and hopes for myself sucked away into the mud. (Page 185)” This ‘shit field’ symbolized something that sucks life away from O’Brien’s survival; first with taking his best friend Kiowa, then taking his soul and happiness from him.

The entire novel can be used itself to symbolize the memories of the lives lost during the Vietnam War. The nightmares, the dreams, and the visions can be symbolized into hope and emotions of anyone lost. The function of symbolism seems to serve as a beacon of hope for anyone. The hope that no one will be harmed, the hope that no man dies today, the hope that Martha will love Cross; symbolism is used as a way of coping up true emotions.

Figurative Language

Figurative language is used in the novel to help readers build a better vision of the novel. Similes are used to compare to things together, while personification gave human qualities to inanimate objects, these techniques were used to set up the tone and the settings. Although, O’Brien did not use many figurative languages, on example of a simile can be found on page 145, paragraph 3, “Like soup or something. Thick and mushy.” In the quote, Jimmy Cross was comparing the dry riverbed to a thick form of soup. An example of a metaphor can be found in the beginning of the novel when O’Brien lists the material things that the men had to hump(jargon for carry). “Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills” shows the intense feelings that Lieutenant Jimmy Cross possessed for this woman, and how he was willing to fight to keep the feeling with him. The only figurative language example used often is allusion, which occurs many times throughout the novel. On page 155, O’Brien alludes from the original plot to mention the formation of another novel Speaking of Courage. Often at times, O’Brien would allude to different events that would provide an insight of a certain character or event that later on ties back to the novel. From pages 155 to 161, O’Brien provides epilogue on the character Norman Barker. The epilogue contains the life of Barker after the war and the life he had retained as a veteran. In the epilogue, Norman Barker commits suicide and O’Brien writes of the accomplishments Baker had obtained during his time in the war. Allusions are used in the novel numerous of times to provide information on characters, events, and life. Tim O’Brien uses a total of about 7-15 allusions in the novel and they are either an insight on a character or event or serves as an epilogue on closed scenarios.

Ironic Devices

O’Brien uses many rhetorical strategies and figurative languages in his novels to describe his scene in detail. The example of irony is situational irony, which is located on page 12, paragraph 3, “…He went ahooo, right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing.” Before the quote, O’Brien wrote of Lee Strunk’s mission to search an abandoned tunnel. O’Brien uses detail and imagery to paint the idea that death awaited Lee inside the tunnel. The men all hated solo missions in the dark, so they drew straws to pick the victim to search the tunnel. When Lee enters, the men become scared and quiet and imagine Lee being picked off by the VC. Shortly, Lee comes out of the tunnel alive, but filthy. The platoon makes jokes and impersonations of ghouls and ghosts, but then suddenly Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from urinating. The reader had been expecting Lee to be harmed instead, since O’Brien was concentrating on description and detail towards the tunnel, however Lavender dies. Throughout the novel, O’Brien points out the understatements that his platoon uses when describing the war. For example, whenever any soldier asked Ted Lavender how the war was going, he would simply say, “It’s a mellow war today. (Page 239)” Another example of irony is shown when O’Brien described his childhood girlfriend. He swears that they were in love, even at the age of nine. What is ironic about this girl, Linda, is that O’Brien explains how she was always smiling. She had a pretty red hat that she wore on their date, and the entire night she would sit there smiling. Later in the chapter, O’Brien tells of how Linda had a brain tumor and she later died. While smiling in her pretty red hat, she was really slowly dying from a brain tumor and only wearing this specific hat to cover up a giant scar and multiple stitches on her head.

Tone

Tim O’Brien’s attitude toward the Vietnam War is very serious and sets a tone of compassion and optimism. The novel often expresses situations in which men are being shot upon, killed, and ripped apart; mentally and physically. The tones during those situations were often expressed as mournful and dismal. At other parts of the story, the tone had changes from a tragic sense to a lonely tone. How O’Brien creates this tone is by advancing the plot from a scene of violence to a scene of loneliness and mourning. Each chapter in the novel revolves around a tragic tone and no matter the location, the plot some how ties into a sense of death. Also, with the use of imagery, O’Brien is able to paint clear pictures into the readers mind with the use of adjectives, similes, and sentence structure. “The day was cloudy. I passed through towns with familiar names, through the pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to war.” (Page 61 Paragraphs 1) The short fragmented sentences provide shorter and concise images, while longer sentences are used to describe more detail of what is happening, “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hold, his eyebrows were think and arched like a woman’s, his nose was undamaged…” (Page 125 Paragraphs 1) The diction creates a tone of simplicity and casualness, although describing the man that he killed.

Theme

The central theme of the novel is “Through the power of story, anyone can be kept alive spiritually.” Throughout the novel, O’Brien identifies that death travels in many variations and that our loved ones will be gone sooner or later. In the end of the novel, O’Brien refers back to the death of his first true love and remembers a nightmare in which he had a conversation with that little girl. He asked her what it was like to be dead, and she replied, “Well, right now…I’m not dead. But when I am, it’s like…I don’t know, I guess it’s like being inside a book that nobody’s reading.” (Page 245 Paragraphs 2) On this page, O’Brien reveals how he is able to remember all of his fallen friends by placing them in story form. After telling of his dream, he created the image of him floating through his life, back to where he was right there sitting at the desk writing the story. He concluded with saying that “thirty years later, [he] realize[s] it as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story. (Page 246)” A secondary theme is “Even in the hardest of situations, it is important to keep on moving and not give up on hope.” Throughout the novel, the platoons face unparallel scrutiny and many of their fellow men are forced to face death. Even in those tough situations, the men still found ways to keep the memories of their dead comrades alive and have a positive attitude toward the situations that they were stuck with. With death staring them in their faces, the men learn to laugh and smile as a way of dealing with war. Through the long marches in the rice fields and the shit river, the men pushed on, not losing hope or giving up; just moving, hoping for a sense of comfort. A motif in the story was the items brought by each soldier. All soldiers carried with them an item from home, which brought them comfort and hope. Each man brought something unique; the items ranged from a condom to comic books. The men brought with them a sense of security, but most importantly, something to look forward to.

The author’s intention is to show that that life will never be an easy task that is handed to us on a silver platter, but a fight for survival. The dead will keep on dying and the hopeless will continue to give up. Through and through, life will never be fair; it is in those times of hardships must we learn to have hope and keep moving. Death shall affect everyone in the world and what O’Brien is trying to make clear is that no matter what happened, anyone could be kept alive as a memory, story, or a dream. Someone may be dead physically, but spiritually, they can be kept alive through the use of imagination and faith.

Significance of the Title

Tim O’Brien could have not chosen a better title than The Things They Carried for this novel. The title is a dead give-a-way to what the story is about, but what readers do not expect is the level of intensity and meanings that follow each chapter. From carrying a condom, a comic book, ammunition, the bible, photographs, and many other little material things, these belongings helped the men push on during the war and acted as their own little comfort zone. What O’Brien is trying to convey with the title is that not only did the men carry their 10-pound vest, or their 15-pound M-16 rifles, but they also carried emotions, struggle, and courage. They carried each other, and carried the weight of an entire country on their shoulders. The materialistic things any man may bring to war can generalize the title, but the meaning goes much deeper than what is actually presented. O’Brien conveys that the men had to carry the memories of their fallen friends, the guilt of killing another man, the mental emotions of war, and the sense of moving forward even in times of hardship. The meaning of the title changes for the reader from pre to post reading due to obtaining a clear understanding on what the men actually carried throughout the war. The men carried much, much more than just items and armor; they carried laughter, joy, anger, optimism, fear, and love. They carried anything that would help them survive in Vietnam. They carried one another at times. They carried themselves. The title of the novel only grows stronger as the novel progresses and only until the novel is finished will the reader fully understand The Things They Carried; simple yet complex at the same time.

Memorable Quotes

“We kept the dead alive with stories. When Ted Lavender was shot in the head, the men talked about how they’d never seen him so mellow, how tranquil he was, how it wasn’t the bullet but the tranquilizers that blew his mind. He wasn’t dead, just laid-back.” (Page 239 paragraph 1)

This quote is significant to the story because it allowed relief for the men who had fallen during their line of duty. War claimed the lives of thousands of people, some family, others friends, war had no mercy. The novel was not written to glorify the war, but it was written to commemorate those who had fallen. This quote is significant because it provided leverage on the morals of the platoon. This quote also captures what the author was trying to convey with the entire novel. These people that mean so much to these men were not easy to lose to a war that many of them didn’t agree with, so instead of sulking and putting themselves in danger, they see the upside to what has happened. Instead of remembering the image of Ted Lavenders head shot and bloody, they remembered the tranquility he possessed when death was put upon him. This novel is not an average war novel, it’s a novel written to show the hardships that those brave men had to overcome to survive.

“Tim, it’s a war. The Guy wasn’t Heidi-he had a weapon, right? It’s a tough thing, for sure, but you got to cut out that staring.” (Page 126 Paragraphs 7)

This quote is significant because it serves as an example of the struggles that the platoon had faced during the war. O’Brien had recently killed an enemy and is now staring at the corpse, speechless and filled with guilt. War is a game of survival, it’s either kill or be killed and O’Brien was the winner. Tim was a man against the war, and here he is bearing the guilt of the lives he had taken away, remembering in detail, what had happened. The constant combat was a dilemma the platoons had faced everyday and instead of having a member of his platoon be killed, Tim acted quickly and killed a man before he could harm anyone else. This quote not only shows how O’Brien was able to act quickly in order to save the lives of several men in his platoon, but this quote also shows his troubled feelings over what he had done. In the novel, O’Brien comes back to speaking of the man he killed several times. He shows how he is still troubled by the fact that he took another human beings life, even if it was in a war.

“Often in a true war story there is not even a point, or else the point doesn’t hit you until twenty years later, in your sleep, and you wake up and shake your wife and start telling the story to her, except when you get to the end you’ve forgotten the point again. And then for a long time you lie there watching the story happen in your head. You listen to your wife’s breathing. The War’s over. You close your eyes. You smile and think, Christ, what’s the point?”

This is significant to the novel because it allows the reader to ponder upon the point of The Things They Carried. Is there an actual plot, or is this just a collection of war stories? From this quote, the reader is forced to recollect upon each chapter and try to pin point the exact point that drove O’Brien to write the novel. This leaves a sense of questioning behind O’Brien’s purpose, but then generalizes over other war stories as well. Not only does this quote allow the reader to analyze each chapter repeatedly, but also O’Brien creates a sense of honesty and credibility. This quote allows the reader to see how human O’Brien is. This novel was more than just a memory in his life, it was a nightmare that has haunted him ever since.