The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien is from small town Minnesota. He was born on October 1, 1946, a birth date he shares with several of his characters.

He graduated from Macalester College in 1968 with a BA in political science and a draft notice.

O'Brien was against the war, but reported for service and was sent to Vietnam with what has been called the "unlucky" American division due to its involvement in the My Lai massacre in 1968.

The My Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass murder of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South /vietnam on March 16, 1968, by United States Army soldiers.

Most of the victims were women, children, infants, and elderly people. Some of the bodies were later found to be mutilated and many women allegedly raped prior to the killings.

While 26 US soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at Mỹ Lai, only Second Lieutenant William Calley, a platoon leader in Charlie Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but only served three and a half years under house arrest.

When the incident became public knowledge in 1969, it prompted global outrage. The massacre also increased domestic opposition to the US involvement in the Vietnam War.

Three US servicemen who had tried to halt the massacre and protect the wounded were initially denounced by several US Congressmen as traitors in an attempt to cover up the massacre. They received hate mail and death threats and found mutilated animals on their doorsteps. The three were later widely praised and decorated by the army for their heroic actions.

O'Brien's tour of duty was After Vietnam he became a graduate student at Harvard. He eventually left Harvard to become a newspaper reporter.

O'Brien's career as a reporter gave way to his fiction writing after publication of his memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Send Me Home.

The Things They Carried O’Brien’s novel is representative of Post- Modernism’s in it’s ability to mix Fiction with Non-Fiction.

Vignette: a short descriptive literary sketch

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