Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a short story that is semi-autobiographical account of O’Brien’s time as a soldier. The story is an account of a soldiers experience in the Vietnam war but because of O’Brien’s own history and talent for storytelling, we still talk about it today. They story relates directly to a soldier, but it connects with the very real and confusing emotions of attachment, young love, and loss too.
To summarized, The Things They Carried is about a platoon of men who are fighting in the Vietnam War. The protagonist is Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. He is in charge, but constantly lost in daydreams about his Martha who is back home. She writes him letters, and he treasures every one, falling in love with her just over those …show more content…
He was sent only on year after the My Lai Massacre. The My Lai Massacre was an event lead by American soldiers that left nearly 500 Vietnam civilians dead. This was the majority of the My Lai population and those killed included women, children, and the elderly. O’Brien, being a United State soldier who had to camp out in this town only a year after the event must have led to some confusing emotions. Especially when you were already questioning, even arguing against, the war before you joined. The overlying idea of The Things They Carried of this story is the struggle of dealing with both physical and emotional burdens. While all the characters carry actual physical items, like guns and food, they also carry emotional baggage like grief, love, longing, depression, and fear. O’Brien dealt with both of these in his own life. During his time in the war, O’Brien carried his own physical bags and left with his own form of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). In his interview, O’brien he did admit that he struggles:
I don’t like talking about the past. I’d really prefer to bury it for my psychological wellbeing. And yet, because I’m a writer, I can’t. I’ve made a choice, and so I’ve got to stick with it… I’m trapped in what I can’t forget it, nor could I. (Herzog
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Tim O’Brien, Vietnam War veteran, perhaps more than any other author gives eloquent and contrary voice to American involvement in war. From his own experiences in Vietnam, O’ Brien wrote a series of anti-war theme novels, including his acclaimed 1987 short story “The Things They Carried,” considered one of the top 100 short stories of the twentieth century (e.g., John Updike and Katrina Kenison, eds., The Best American Short Stories of the Century, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999). In his…

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