Abstract
This paper looks closely at the short story by Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried". The work selects as its thesis the items which were carried, and what they symbolize. The paper also comments upon what it means to not have items of value or to burn and give up the burdens which were first brought to war. It concludes that these items saved the soldiers and bring them humanity.

From the Paper
"Tim O'Brien's powerful words in the short story "The Things They Carried", the title and first chapter in his collection of work concerning soldiers during the Vietnam War, connect to readers as they remind us of burdens being carried--physical, emotional and spiritual. As the soldiers gain personality via their possessions--both those they carry as well as those they leave behind--we come to envision these men as the `everyman,' those who go off to war and symbolize a country. As the images of these burdens gain a solid presence in the story, they represent the lives and hopes of each soldier, even as they are cast away by the principle character in the tale, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Near the first lines of the story, O'Brien introduces the readers to the theme of the `carried,' or burdens. Each soldier is made unique by..."

Tags:o'brien, burdens, carried

Abstract
In this article, the writer studies Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried' and notes that this is a poignant memoir of the author's experiences in the Vietnam War. The writer explains that the title of the book references the figurative weight of war. The writer examines the burden and consequences on the men as portrayed in the book.

From the Paper
"Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried' is a poignant memoir of the author's experiences in the Vietnam War. The title of the book references the figurative weight of war. While it would be foolish to narrow in on just one aspect of the travails undergone by the soldiers in Tim's company and deem it the most important thing the soldiers carried, it is worthwhile to examine one burden and its consequences on the men without making proclamations about the exclusivity of its importance to ..."

Tags:ambiguity, Vietnam, The Things They Carried

Abstract
This paper reviews the Vietnam War novel "The Things They Carried" by Tim Obrien, which analyzes the emotional baggage carried by the grunts. The paper points out that, in addition to physical objects, the soldiers carried madness, delusions, hallucinations, grudges. The author feel that whether the stories comprising the novel are literally true is irrelevant, because the emotions behind them are true.

From the Paper
"The baggage the soldiers discarded and acquired in country is as significant as the baggage they brought with them. Once again, in "The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong" the greenies are the antithesis of John Wayne's Green Berets. Those green berets were clean-shaven men. Men who slept in pajamas, on mattresses. Men who adopted dirty faced orphans with puppies and baseball caps. Men who protected the indigenous elderly, weak and infirm. Men who died almost soundlessly , bloodlessly, and always valiantly and never stupidly. Those recruiting poster green berets carried with them every western value ascribed to a fighting man by their countrymen from truth, justice and the American Way to baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet."

Tags:emotions, grunts, delusion, true, country

Abstract
This paper examines how a primary theme of "The Things They Carried" is baggage and burdens - both physical and mental in nature. It looks at how the things that the characters carry in the story function in both a literal and figurative nature. While all of the characters carry heavy physical loads during the war, they also carry heavy emotional loads, such as love, sadness, longing, and of course, fear. It also discusses how the physical loads that the characters carry throughout the story have certain significance to the emotional baggage that each character carries.

From the Paper
"The characters in "The Things They Carried" possessed emotional baggage from the start of the war, as was evident in the letters that Jimmy Cross carried, and the New Testament that Kiowa carried, which connected to their pre-war lives. However, with war came emotional baggage that occurred during the war, on top of the previous burdens that the characters may have experienced. Jimmy Cross was a leader of a group of men at war, however when Tim Lavender, a young, scared soldier who embodied the fear that all of the soldiers shared, died, Jimmy Cross felt a great amount of responsibility for it. Cross felt that his longing for love and his obsession with Martha's letters got in the way of him being able to do his job correctly, and the fact that Lavender's death was preventable (which also displayed how expendable lives are in war), made Cross change forever. "

Tags:war, baggage, emotion, jimmy, cross

Abstract
Weight is an important metaphor in "The Things they carried." This paper explains that at the outset of the short story, by Tim O'Brien, the reader is given an account of the burden each soldier is carrying. With this physical burden the themes of his story began to grow. It discusses how with this effective metaphor O' Brien is able to mold the reader's understanding of the mental burdens being carried by the men in his story, for it is the mental burden which far outweighs the physical to men on the battlefield.

From the Paper
"The mental burden defines a soldier's experience, and the mental burden exacts the most exhausting suffering on all soldiers. Soldiers learn early in their careers that physical burdens and physical suffering can be endured no matter the weight carried or the pain felt. As a soldier serves, his tolerance for these types of burdens grows and eventually becomes a sensation rarely reflected upon. The physical burden of equipment can be put down and physical pain endured is weakness leaving. It is the burdens which can not be relinquished that ware a soldier down. It is the mental weight of their experiences that cannot be let easily go. It is the description of these burdens that are most profound in the theme of the story and reveal the psychological experience of war. Soldiers carry much more than their equipment into battle. "

Tags:mental, battle, experience, battlefield, war

Abstract
The paper introduces "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien, a collection of stories all involving the heavy emotional burden soldiers carry into the Vietnam War. It discusses how the book reads more like the memories of an old man, not ordered by chronology, but rather by the experiences of pain, tragedy and death that overcome a person in the moment. This paper explores O'Brien's description of the soldiers' lives before, during and after the Vietnam War, as well as examines the real things that these soldiers carried with them into battle.

From the Paper
"When the soldiers return home after the Vietnam War, life doesn't get much better for them. Instead of a hero's welcome they are met with ignorance and indifference, thereby making them feel alienated from routine life. A classic example of this is what Norman Bowker experiences upon his return. Norman found it difficult to think of life after the Vietnam War as relevant. Anyone who had not experienced the Vietnam War first-hand could not possibly understand its vulgarity or empathize with the soldiers who lived the war. Also, people back home were not interested in knowing about the Vietnam War. "[The town] had no memory, therefore no guilt....It did not know shit about shit, and did not care to know." (O'Brien, 1999, 143)."

Tags:enemy, Ted, Lavender, Curt, Lemon, Norman, Bowker

Abstract
This paper discusses love, death, pathos and irony within Tim O'Brien's short story, "The Things They Carried." The paper describes the plot of the story and provides examples from the plot to describe the burdens that the soldiers carried to war with them. It also discusses the symbolism that is shown in the title and the plot of the story.

From the Paper
"At the beginning of the story, O'Brien mentions various items, i.e., the "things" that the various characters carry along with them wherever they go: particular weapons; necessities for doing their individual jobs; little necessities like mosquito repellant; little luxuries like chewing gum, cigarettes, and candy. What is apparent at the end, though, is that in war a soldier's biggest burdens are in fact those with no physical weight at all. These include thoughts of home and loved ones there; the horrors and regrets of the recent past here; the fears of today; and unbridled anxieties about tomorrow."

Tags:characters, Vietnam, title

Abstract
This paper examines "The Things They Carried" by Tim O' Brien, the story of 12 soldiers, members of the Third Platoon, Alpha Company, Fifth Battalion of the 16th Infantry, 198th Infantry Brigade of the American Division in the Vietnam War of 1969. It looks at how O'Brien relates his and his companions' desolate and fatal experiences during that war and how he uses those experiences to explore the complications of memory and trauma, the most lasting of the things he and his companions endured, and which have remained with him to this day. It examines how it lists the many things they carried into war that were more real and terrifying than bullets, guns, grenades, and disease, such as the deaths, injuries, and sicknesses, and the overall brokenness they had to face in fighting.

From the Paper
"O'Brien gives major focus on the death of his closest friend, Kiowa throughout the book. It was a freak incident in that his own platoon killed him by mistake when it camped in a latrine on the banks of the song Tra Bong. It was plain to see why the author held Kiowa closest to his heart: Kiowa shared his sentiments about the cruelty of war. Kiowa was also a very compassionate and intelligent man, but precisely because of the kind of soul he was that O'Brien gave greater coverage of Kiowa's very costly death than his life. It was a gutting loss he carried with great pain and could never get over with."

Tags:kiowa, platoon, death, guns, alpha, company

Abstract
This paper analyzes how the abstract idea that specific facts and events are inconsequential when looking at a theme or idea as a whole is used in the novels, "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien, and "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston. It shows how, through the use of talk story, as in Kingston's novel and the basis of a "true war story" in "The Things they Carried", the respective authors use the idea to portray the true meaning of the work. It looks at how both Kingston and O'Brien use this twist in a story to fully develop the themes portrayed and to get across the true meaning of their stories and what they want the reader to take away from the stories.

From the Paper
"The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is a non-fiction story of a Chinese-American girl growing up in California. Throughout the novel Kingston uses the talk stories from her mother to outline what a true woman warrior is and who Maxine's mother expected her to be. The first example of this is the legend of Fa Mu Lan told in the chapter "White Tigers."2 The story tells of the warrior Fa Mu Lan who manages to be everything to everyone, able to satisfy the role of wife and mother while still leading her people to victory in battle. Fa Mu Lan becomes what every Chinese woman wants to become, the powerful warrior that protects her family and the nurturing mother that raises her children."

Tags:twist, nconsequential, vietnam, chinese, talk, war, story

Abstract
This paper examines Tim O'Brien's, "The Things They Carried," which is a compilation of several short stories or vignettes, about the experiences of the men who fought in the Vietnam War. The author uses commentary from two other literary sources who have analyzed the materials that were covered in O'Brien's book. The author discusses how O'Brien's background influenced the structure and content of the book. Some of the themes found in the different stories include courage, loneliness and memories and how the men carry all of these, along with their supplies, with them throughout the war. This writer feels that it was the stories and the intimacy of the sharing of these feelings that helped many of these men survive the war, relatively intact.

From the Paper
"Characterization is one of the most important parts of this novel, and O'Brien manages to create vivid characters that are sympathetic and very real at the same time. How can a man named Rat be sympathetic? It is partly because of the thread of storytelling that is the backbone of the novel. "For Rat Kiley. . . facts were formed by sensation, not the other way around, and when you listened to one of his stories, you'd find yourself performing rapid calculations in your head, subtracting superlatives, figuring the square root of an absolute and then multiplying by maybe" (O'Brien 101). Much of O'Brien's novel reads like the folktales of old, passed down orally from generation to generation. Rat Kiley is clearly a born storyteller, for he makes his listeners think and think hard while he spins his tales."

Tags:vietnam, war, platoon, experience, enemy