The Things They Carried: Paper #2 This book is a recollection of the Vietnamese War from a soldier’s point of view that gives inside details about what the war was like. He goes to tell about different physical objects soldiers carry. As well as the types of events that experiences, and how the war affected him and the other soldiers around him. O’Brien gives details of deaths he saw and how others around coped with them, and other tragic things that happened. The narrator O’Brien discusses his personal feelings about the war and tells of his story how he ended up there. He was drafted as like a lot of young men in America at this time, and he tries to avoid going by almost fleeing the country. He decides not to flee, not for himself, or any want or pride to go to the war and fight for his country, but to avoid embarrassment. O’Brien feels if he doesn’t go to the war, he would not be able to take knowing he disappointed his family. This is symbolic because I feel O’Brien tries to stress that is the reason a lot of soldiers went. Throughout the first chapter of the book details of physical as well as intangible things the soldiers carried were given. It seems as though all of the things listed tell about what kind of person each soldier was based on what he carried. Such as when he said Henry Dobbins things consisted of food as he …show more content…
After reading it would lead one to believe Martha was in fact a fictional character, he used in order to cope with war. Martha was his sort of happy place and he tells about a time they spent together. In the long run O’Brien decides to let go of the idea of Martha. He realizes this is just a distraction from what’s going on around him and doesn’t want to escape it but actually face the truth. This was a big event in the story because it displays the extent of what they had to do in order to escape the reality of