The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
A timeless, profoundly transformative examination of war, nostalgia, the mind, and the healing power of narrative, with more than two million copies, sold The stories in The Things They Carried, which feature the men of Alpha Company, including Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the figure of Tim O’Brien, who survived his tour in Vietnam and went on to become a father and author at the age of forty-three, forever changed the way we saw war. In the decades since its publication, it has never ceased to test our notions of reality and fiction, war and peace, as well as courage, longing, and terror. It is taught everywhere, from high school classes to graduate courses in creative writing.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
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The Things They Carried is a book about lying and truth-bending in Vietnam. The author, who was there when he was quite young, wrote a collection of short stories about Vietnam. It also describes what it’s like for an American teenager to find themselves suddenly knee-deep in a jungle fighting a conflict they don’t understand or care about. killing those who are so unlike you without giving them a chance to comprehend or value their culture. And Tim O’Brien gives you characters that are incredibly believable, based on actual people and on himself, and he also puts you in circumstances that defy understanding in terms of any background or frame of reference.
The book opens by listing the physical equipment that the soldiers used—guns, boots, ponchos, meals, and a variety of other supplies that unavoidably added weight to their days and nights spent on the field. But it soon became clear that the title really did not allude to these material possessions, but rather to the considerably heavier emotional loads. The author’s struggle with such emotional baggage starts when he considers whether to submit to the draft or move to Canada. There is a lovely part about his stay in a cottage close to the Canadian border when he considers his options with the ailing owner.
He makes the decision to stay in the country, not out of internal patriotism, but rather out of fear of looking bad if he didn’t report. His dread of embarrassment was far stronger than his anxiety about going to battle since he did not want to let his loved ones down. He would, in fact, go to battle, kill, and possibly perish because he would feel ashamed not to.
This feeling of embarrassment or shame carried over to the battlefield. In actuality, the dread of blushing was the most potent of the items the warriors brought. Men killed and perished because it made them feel bad not to.
Their bravery was not the result of bravery or valour, but rather came from the fact that they were too terrified to be regarded as cowards. They also struggled with the want to do the right thing amid all the evil and seek justice among the dead. But no matter what it is, war is never moral; it does not teach or promote virtue, nor does it offer examples of acceptable human conduct, nor does it prevent men from acting, in the same manner, they always have. Hell is war, but so is dread, adventure, bravery, and learning. The author also mentions how entertaining and unpleasant war is. War is both exciting and tedious. War turns you into a man and ends your life.
