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The Things They Carried Theme Analysis

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Recommended: “The Things They Carried” by O’Brien

Themes
Emotional and physical toll of war. In this book the characters have many things they have to carry both emotionally and physically. Emotions like grief and love are felt very strongly. These stories show the strain and hardship of the war and the effects it has on each individual soldier.
The art of storytelling. Throughout the novel the author gives advice on how to tell a true war story and how to decide whether a story is true or not. The book concludes by saying that stories bring the dead back to life and associates a form of magic with stories.
Morality. The war makes people forget their morals and values causing people to do horrible things. People lose their sense of right and wrong and do things like killing innocent villagers.It is hard for us to understand the horrors of war but they …show more content…

Maddie Sharp
The Things They Carried
Soldiers have experienced and lived things that are unimaginable to us. There is no possible way we can even begin to understand their concerns and the difficulty of their duties.Each soldier in this story carries something physically that in someway correlates to their emotional burdens. The things they carried were mostly based on need and rank with the exception of a few personal or superstitious items. Jimmy Cross carries love letters along with his compass and maps. Jimmy misses his love Martha throughout the book. With his compass and maps come the responsibility of being in charge. In another story Jimmy expresses how he never wanted to be in charge and how he dislikes the responsibility of have to take care of everyone else. Like his friend Jimmy, Henry

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