O Brien's The Things They Carried Literary Analysis

O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a third-person story about the Vietnam War. O’Brien was sent to Vietnam as a foot soldier in 1969 and left in 1970 with a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star for Valor, and a Combat Infantry Badge. O’Brien’s short story tells the tale of the Vietnam times, using characters to portray his horrors from the war.

Mahini et al. divulge into the history of the Vietnam war, or “Bad” war, to better understand the actions of the soldiers in the story. As many readers cannot relate or completely understand the traumas soldiers endured during the war, the authors of the article provide a background for readers to put knowledge into the reading. The article is written to determine the moral compass of the soldiers and how the war shaped them to make decisions and actions.

The morale was high as soldiers felt supported and that they were stopping something bad. However, the war took a turn when the soldiers' orders began to change. The article reads “By the end of the 1960’s decade, when President Johnson required American troops to take on the role of direct combat units, the number of American casualties significantly increased. Moreover, during President Nixon’s planned period of combat troop withdrawal, the troops’ morale took a dive as American soldiers struggled to stay alive during their one-year service tour.” (Mahini et al. 4) As many soldiers were fighting both physically and mentally to stay alive during the war, psychiatrists warned that the soldiers were having catastrophic consequences on the units and their performance in battle. It is because of this low morale and performance that the later period of the war became known as the “bad”