Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

The Things They Carried is a harrowing story about the trials and tribulations of the Vietnam War by author and veteran Tim O’Brien. However, the qualities of the characters and the tangible/intangible things they carry with them are applicable to anybody who has witnessed the tragedies of war for themselves. O’Brien shows us the things these soldiers carry - and what they mean to them - through details, repetition, and a blunt tone. First, O’Brien shows the physical things the soldiers carry by listing them. Basic and/or regulatory items they have are stated, such as “safety picks, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire, razor blades, chewing tobacco,” etc. The list keeps going on. He also lists the items that some of the men personally

Of course these things are tangible and to any normal person, they would mean nothing except a means of protection. But by giving us these details, O’Brien was smart because even though he doesn’t tell us character traits, we are able to infer them through what each man chose to carry. For instance, Sander’s “tiger fatigues for special occasions” tell us that he likes women and carries vanity. Dobbins’ insecticide tells us that he carries a hatred vietnam’s jungle full of exoctic insects and wild animals; he would much rather be elsewhere. Jensen’s sandbags give us the impression that he carries a paranoia about being killed, especially if he’s caught off guard, and therefore feels he needs more protection. In addition,Lastly O’Brien writes how the men would throw away things on marches because they knew that resupply choppers would replaces the same items a day or two later. This detail sounds

But as a veteran, he understands that to get through war and all of its daily tragedies, that’s exactly what a soldier needs to be, or he won’t survive. The quote “...just humping, one step and then the next and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage…” illustrates and reaffirms what O’Brien is trying to tell us by explaining how the soldiers got through every day. In war, they have to get used to all of the terrible things and still keep going because ultimately there is a task at hand to be completed. And they just do it. They just do it and try their best not to get killed in the process. That’s war. And that’s O’Brien’s (and many others) attitude towards it. More evidence of his objective tone is that O’Brien tells us exactly what the men carry without emotion or bias. Passionate adjectives lack, while we are almost given a grocery list of the things the group of soldiers carry. However, we do get some insight into what the characters could be feeling from O’Brien in a phrase that could have a double meaning: “They carried their own lives. The pressures were enormous”. Because he doesn’t elaborate, it lets us readers know that there definitely was a great mental toll. O’Brien, like the soldiers, just doesn’t want to talk about it. He helps to illustrate that through a juxtaposition of short