The Things They Carried, By Tim O'Brien
"We carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated bibles, and each other. And if we made it home alive, we carried the unrelenting images of a nightmarish war..." - Tim O'Brien
The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories recollected from O'Brien's experience in Vietnam, about his platoon and what each soldier had seen. The story tells the tale of the study of men at war that illuminates the mental capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul...
The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories recollected from O'Brien's experience in Vietnam, about his platoon and what each soldier had seen. The story tells the tale of the study of men at war that illuminates the mental capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul...
The Difference Between a Man and Machine...
"It was a matter of living or dying. There was no real peril. Almost certainly the young man would have passed by. And it will always be that way. Later, I remember, Kiowa tried to tell me that the man would've died anyway. He told me it was a good kill, that I was a soldier and this was a war, that I should shape up and stop staring and ask myself what the dead man would've done if things were reversed. None of it mattered. The words seemed too far complicated. All I could do was gape at the young man's corpse, the man I killed..." - Tim O'Brien
The theme of, The Things They Carried, is not just the survival of the fittest, but the mentality and difference between becoming a man or a machine...
The story describes each and every one of the soldiers within the squad, explaining what they are like, what they enjoy, what they dislike, what keeps them cool under pressure, and most of all what they have carried within them. Each soldier carries something within themselves: "the unrelenting images of a nightmarish war," as Tim O'Brien has said. Each soldier experienced and saw things that were inhuman, disturbing, horrific, and overall madness. What was left of their mentality was a deep pit of self pity and sorrow, what they saw in Vietnam will never go away. The nightmares never go away... They once thought they were human beings, but now they feel as if they are emotionless machines...
In the chapter, "The Man I Killed," the author, Tim O'Brien discusses the things he saw and done in Vietnam. During his active service in Vietnam, there was an incident where he saw an enemy NVA soldier scouting. Without hesitation, he grabbed a grenade and lobbed it toward the individual, the NVA soldier had no chance to evade the explosive damage of the grenade and died from the blast. When O'Brien came to investigate the body, he soon realized what he had done...He had killed a young boy. With this discovery, O'Brien became horrified and disgusted of himself, he killed a mere child without haste or hesitation. He felt as if all innocence and humanity left him, as if he was only a simple tool of the military...A killing machine of war...
To this day, the death of this child has forever haunted Tim, and it will never leave his mind. His memory has resembled this young boy, as a memento to never forget what happened in Vietnam...
The theme of, The Things They Carried, is not just the survival of the fittest, but the mentality and difference between becoming a man or a machine...
The story describes each and every one of the soldiers within the squad, explaining what they are like, what they enjoy, what they dislike, what keeps them cool under pressure, and most of all what they have carried within them. Each soldier carries something within themselves: "the unrelenting images of a nightmarish war," as Tim O'Brien has said. Each soldier experienced and saw things that were inhuman, disturbing, horrific, and overall madness. What was left of their mentality was a deep pit of self pity and sorrow, what they saw in Vietnam will never go away. The nightmares never go away... They once thought they were human beings, but now they feel as if they are emotionless machines...
In the chapter, "The Man I Killed," the author, Tim O'Brien discusses the things he saw and done in Vietnam. During his active service in Vietnam, there was an incident where he saw an enemy NVA soldier scouting. Without hesitation, he grabbed a grenade and lobbed it toward the individual, the NVA soldier had no chance to evade the explosive damage of the grenade and died from the blast. When O'Brien came to investigate the body, he soon realized what he had done...He had killed a young boy. With this discovery, O'Brien became horrified and disgusted of himself, he killed a mere child without haste or hesitation. He felt as if all innocence and humanity left him, as if he was only a simple tool of the military...A killing machine of war...
To this day, the death of this child has forever haunted Tim, and it will never leave his mind. His memory has resembled this young boy, as a memento to never forget what happened in Vietnam...