Topic > Analysis of Tim O'Brien's novel The Things They Carried'

In Tim O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried, begins with a series of objects that each soldier must "hump", or carry, during the Vietnam War. Lists and explains needs, various weapons, ammunition, grenades, claymores, helmets, body armor, can openers, C rations, insect repellent, cigarettes, jungle boots, medical supplies, photographs, letters, as well as personal items, mementos, stories, emotions and, above all, their own lives. On top of everything, O'Brien reveals that soldiers also brought with them their stories: “stories to unite the past with the future”1, stories that can animate bodies and “make the dead speak”,2 “a real war story that never talks about war,”3 and “stories that are strange, unlikely, and that last forever, that swirl back and forth across the line between banality and bedlam, the mad and the banal.”4 The novel offers profound insight of the war through the eyes of soldiers in Vietnam while the textbook, Give Me Liberty by Eric Foner, looks at the war from afar through the eyes of the government and civilians in the United States. The Things They Carried is not about the Vietnam War in itself, but the experiences that soldiers faced while fighting the war, the culture of being a soldier, and how the Vietnam War turns a weld that American civilians cannot understand their involvement in the war was intended to prevent a communist takeover in South Vietnam. According to the domino theory, supported by the United States government, if a state were to fall into the hands of communism, other states in the region would precede it. The United States refused to let this happen, as a result American participation in the war continued to grow. O'Brien recounts his experience... middle of paper... throughout the novel Rat has always been seen as a brave soldier and nothing less. If Rat could then succumb to the weaknesses of war, what's to stop other brave soldiers from going mad with him? At the beginning of the book O'Brien talks about the weaknesses that no soldier would want to experience. “They scoffed at the sick call. They spoke bitterly of boys who had found liberation by shooting off their toes or fingers... It was a ferocious and mocking speech, with only a trace of envy or awe, but even so the image manifested itself behind their eyes . 18 If the soldiers showed weakness they would be criticized not only by the soldiers, but also by the people in America who watch them. Since reputation means so much to soldiers, it's hard to believe that a good guy like Rat Kiley could fall. People in America would not understand the challenges of war that soldiers had to withstand.