The Vietnam War Revealed In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

The Vietnam War was a long and catastrophic war. Among the American people, it caused divisive conflict between the state and those who opposed. However, regardless of U.S Military strength, the Americans lost the war and withdrew forces under the order of President Richard Nixon in 1973. In the late 1960's, younger Americans began to realize that the battles were a waste and men refused to fight in the war. Nevertheless, young adults were drafted into the U.S Army, including a young Tim O'Brien, author of many novels including fiction novel The Things They Carried, a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories, had just completed undergraduate school. In the novel, the protagonist, Tim O'Brien, catalogs a variety of experiences his fellow soldiers and himself endured during their time in Vietnam. In war, soldiers become brothers and their lives become intertwined; talking through their lives before war while experiencing the same disasters of war every day. O'Brien writes, "they carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die" (1141), in which this phrase represents their time together as it might be their last.

In O'Brien's Vietnam novel The

'I carry the memories of the ghosts of a place called Vietnam - the people of Vietnam, my fellow soldiers,' he tells host Neal Conan. 'More importantly,' … 'I carry the weight of responsibility, and a sense of abiding guilt.'" (The Things They Carried 20 years on). Copious amounts of veterans of war come back home having lost a friend, in which the veterans will carry home to their fallen comrades home their legacy, and the humbling stories. "Civilians aren't privy to the bonds forged in the heat of battle. They can't truly grasp the vulnerability of putting one's life in someone else's hands. They've never felt the eternal link shaped by staring down terror, then pulling each other into the blaze of bravery required on the battlefield" (Remember