"The Things They Carried"

Paper Summary:

This paper relates that Tim O'Brien's novel "The Things They Carried" is a novel that illustrates the far-reaching effects of war, as well as a novel about the art of writing. The paper reveals that some of the "true" stories O'Brien writes never actually happened and explains that, in the novel, O'Brien illustrates the importance of telling a "good" and moving story as opposed to telling a "real" or true one. The paper opines that O'Brien successfully demonstrates how the importance of the story overrules whether or not the story is "true".

From the Paper:

"The Things They Carried is no doubt a Vietnam War novel - one that is validated through O'Brien's experiences. However, while O'Brien is very forthright about his war experiences, he is also very straightforward about his writing experience. O'Brien emphasizes the importance of the story rather than focusing on whether or not the story is fact or fiction. This is significant because O'Brien does not want the reader to ever forget that the experience of war is ambiguous and therefore, "It's safe to say that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true" (O'Brien 82). Throughout the novel, he touches on this subject as if to remind us that we are reading fiction."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Martin Naparsteck. An Interview with Tim O'Brien Contemporary Literature. JSTOR Resource Database. <http://www.jstor.org/journals/uwisc.html> Site Accessed March 03, 2008.
• O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway Books, 1990.

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