Summary Of The Things They Carried 'By Tim O' Brien

The Things They Carried, a novel by Tim O’Brien and published in 2009, examines what it was like to have fought in the Vietnam War, through memory, imagination, and the powerful ability of storytelling. Throughout his book O’Brien writes a series of vignettes and describes what it was like during the war, and the effects it had on him a decade later. There was one part in particular that really caught my attention. In the chapter,“How to Tell a True War Story”, O’Brien mentions how Rat Kiley, a Vietnam soldier, writes a letter and he was not pleased with the outcome. As I am sitting on my bed reading one of the chapters in the novel, “How to Tell a True War Story,” I begin to see a flashback of my own life. I see my brother’s face and the

not knowing if we'll ever see them again. As the days go by, you hope that you don't get a phone call or a knock on the door about something bad that may have happened. The feeling of waiting and worrying is very draining. Why do we worry so much about our loved ones? It is the fact that we can’t imagine something so horrible happening to them and not being able to be right there when it happens to help them. You go to bed and wake up every day hoping that soon they will be home safe and sound. But what happens when you do get a letter similar to Curt Lemon’s

She came to the conclusion that they are often left alone to cope. There are were over 100 siblings and spouses who went to a convention for those who had lost a loved one in the military. “It is hard because they feel as if they need to fit into the shoes of their siblings that are gone to make sure the family stays connected” (Hefling). As difficult as it is for spouses to lose their loved ones, she found that it is even harder for the siblings. This is because they have lost someone that they have had their whole lives, and you expect them to be in your life