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The Things They Carried An Introduction “They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.” - Tim O’Brien, from The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien October 1, 1946-Present O’Brien writes and lives in central Texas, where he raises his young sons and teaches full-time every other year at Texas State University–San Marcos. In alternate years, he teaches several workshops to MFA students in the creative writing program

Historical Context North Vietnam was communist. South Vietnam was not. North Vietnamese Communists and South Vietnamese Communist rebels, known as the Viet Cong, wanted to overthrow the South Vietnamese government and re-unite the country under a system modeled after the Soviet Union and China. U.S. military advisers, present in small numbers throughout the 1950s, were introduced on a large scale beginning in 1961, and active combat units were introduced in 1965.

Historical Context By 1969, more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union and China poured weapons, supplies, and advisers into the North, which in turn provided support, political direction, and regular combat troops for the campaign in the South. The costs and casualties of the growing war proved too much for the United States to bear, and U.S. combat units were withdrawn by 1973. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North. The United States was involved in the Vietnam War from 1955-March 29, 1973. That’s 18 years.

America Protests the War The war had been sold to the US public as one where a sophisticated and ultra wealthy super- power would have few problems defeating a Third World nation that North Vietnam seemed to represent. The protests against the war started to pick up when drafted soldiers increased tremendously and body bags started to return to America in increasing numbers. In May 1968, 562 US troops were killed in one week alone. Coupled with these casualty figures were stories that eventually came out about atrocities committed by US troops against the very people they were meant to be defending and supporting since this was the first televised war in American history.

U.S. Troop Statistics 8,744,000 - Total number of U.S. Troops that served worldwide during Vietnam 3,403,000 served in Southeast Asia 2,594,000 served in South Vietnam The total of American servicemen listed as POW/MIA at the end of the war was 2,646. As of April 14, 2016, 1,621 soldiers remain unaccounted for. U.S. Deaths: Battle: 47,434 Non-Battle: 10,786 Total In-Theatre: 58,220 1.3 million - Total military deaths for all countries involved 1 million - Total civilian deaths

Plot Synopsis The protagonist, who is named Tim O’Brien, begins by describing an event that occurred in the middle of his Vietnam experience. The Things They Carried catalogs the variety of things his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company brought on their missions. Several of these things are intangible, including guilt and fear, while others are specific physical objects, including matches, morphine, M-16 rifles, and M&M’s candy.

Major Characters Tim O’Brien -  The FICTIONAL narrator and protagonist of the collection of stories. O’Brien is a pacifist who rationalizes his participation in Vietnam by concluding that his feelings of obligation toward his family and country are stronger influences than his own politics. When the war is over, he uses his ability to tell stories to deal with his guilt and confusion over the atrocities he witnessed in Vietnam

Major Characters Jimmy Cross -  The lieutenant of the Alpha Company, who is responsible for the entire group of men. Cross is well intentioned but unsure of how to lead his men. He is wracked with guilt because he believes that his preoccupation with his unrequited love for a girl named Martha and his tendency to follow orders despite his better judgment caused the deaths of Ted Lavender and Kiowa, two members of Alpha Company.

Major Characters Mitchell Sanders -  One of the most likable soldiers in the war. Sanders strongly influences the narrator, O’Brien. He is kind and devoted, and he has a strong sense of justice. Because of these qualities, he is a type of father figure. Though his ideas of storytelling may or may not agree with O’Brien’s in the end, his ability to tell stories and to discuss their nuances makes a profound impression on O’Brien.

Major Characters Kiowa -  O’Brien’s closest friend and a model of quiet, rational morality amid the atrocities of war. Kiowa’s death, when the company mistakenly camps in a sewage field, is the focal point of three stories. Since it is a prime example of arbitrary, unforgiving cruelty in war, Kiowa’s death is given more prominence than his life.

Major Characters Norman Bowker -  A man who embodies the damage that the war can do to a soldier long after the war is over. During the war, Bowker is quiet and unassuming, and Kiowa’s death has a profound effect on him. Bowker’s letter to O’Brien in “Notes” demonstrates the importance of sharing stories in the healing process.

Major Characters Bob “Rat” Kiley -  The platoon’s medic. Kiley previously served in the mountains of Chu Lai, the setting of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.” O’Brien has great respect for Kiley’s medical prowess, especially when he is shot for a second time and is subjected to the mistreatment of another medic, Bobby Jorgenson. Though levelheaded and kind, Kiley eventually succumbs to the stresses of the war and his role in it—he purposely blows off his toe so that he is forced to leave his post.

Major Characters Curt Lemon -  A childish and careless member of the Alpha Company who is killed when he steps on a rigged mortar round. Though O’Brien does not particularly like Lemon, Lemon’s death is something O’Brien continually contemplates with sadness and regret. The preventability of his death and the irrational fears of his life—as when a dentist visits the company—point to the immaturity of many young American soldiers in Vietnam.

Major Characters Linda -  O’Brien’s first love, whose death of a brain tumor in the fifth grade is O’Brien’s first experience with mortality. From his experience with Linda, O’Brien learns the power that storytelling has to keep memory alive.

Significant Themes Physical and Emotional Burdens: The “Things” of the title that O’Brien’s characters carry are both literal and figurative. While they all carry heavy physical loads, they also all carry heavy emotional loads, composed of grief, terror, love, and longing. Each man’s physical burden underscores his emotional burden.

Significant Themes Fear of Shame as Motivation: O’Brien’s personal experience shows that the fear of being shamed before one’s peers is a powerful motivating factor in war. His story “On the Rainy River” explains his moral quandary after receiving his draft notice—he does not want to fight in a war he believes is unjust, but he does not want to be thought a coward.

Significant Themes The Subjection of Truth to Storytelling: By giving the narrator his own name and naming the rest of his characters after the men he actually fought alongside in the Vietnam War, O’Brien blurs the distinction between fact and fiction. The result is that it is impossible to know whether or not any given event in the stories truly happened to O’Brien. O’Brien’s aim in blending fact and fiction is to make the point that objective truth of a war story is less relevant than the act of telling a story. O’Brien is attempting not to write a history of the Vietnam War through his stories but rather to explore the ways that speaking about war experience establishes bonds between a soldier and his audience.