Theme Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

The Things They Carried is an excellent story by Tim O'Brien. What is most interesting about this book is that it reads like a collections of stories told by the people who are involved. Sometimes the author acts as a narrator, and sometimes he is a direct character in the novel. The story is one of deep emotion and symbolism. I will discuss the three most important themes in the book. First the physical and emotional things that the men carried, then the theme of shame. Finally I will discuss the difference in feeling truth and happening truth.

The first theme is the physical and emotional things that the men carried. The book, especially the first chapter, discuses what the men carry. He takes a great amount of time to describe each man and

"a thing may happen and be a lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than truth." O'Brien tells us the story about the man he killed, then he tells us that he didn't really kill him. He had watched him die. Which made him feel guilty and sad. By telling us the story he made us feel like he felt. I do not believe the author is trying to really give us a historical account of his experience in Vietnam. Instead, he is trying to help us understand what the men were feeling. It is obvious that telling these stories has helped O'Brien cope with the horrors of war. The men share a story. It is important to them to be able to share those stories.

Norman Bowker, could never find anyone who would listed to the real story of what happened. He had been brave and won many metals. Not even his father would listen to the true stories. He felt left behind and alone, ultimately committing suicide. These men needed to tell the stories.

They needed to be able to get council. The sad truth was that the men returning from war, did not return to a heroes welcome. They returned to a country that didn't want them. In fact, due to the political climate, many times they didn't dare tell others that they had been in Vietnam at all.

This was not the truth. The truth was often senseless death and waste. In summary, this book was very moving, as well as occasionally disturbing. Vietnam was unlike any war we'd fought before or since.

These young men had been drafted. They were not volunteer soldiers.

This was not a war for great moral gain, or to correct a great social injustice. Many people were tired of seeing the bloody images on the tv.

Most believed the war was a lost cause. These men carried their emotional baggage. They carried the shame and horrors of war with them for the rest of their lives. My grandpa went to Vietnam when he was 18.

For 30 years he never spoke about it. When he returned, the troops were told to not wear their uniforms in public. They were to change into street clothes before they left for home. The change happened for him when another local man started speaking at the VFW meetings. The man told his Vietnam story at the meeting. Later, he went to my grandpas house and asked him to tell his story. Grandpa talks about it a little now. Still,

Sometimes when he tells a story, I can tell he isn't telling the whole story.

He will get tears in his eyes and cut the story short. Sometimes a "real story "can be too