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Things They Carried

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Tim O'Brien, an extremely talented and acclaimed writer of the award winning novel, The Things They Carried, has an extraordinary writing style, which seems to cloud the line between fact and fiction. He challenges his readers to consider more profound interpretations about truth and memory, and guides the readers closer to the center of the character’s experiences. The Things They Carried is not just a story about fighting in a war, but also about fighting the war going on inside one’s self. The book's dominant idea is just as pertinent today as it was many years ago; touching the hearts of all types of people from all different walks of life. O’Brien’s award-winning stories are harsh, yet amusing, and tend to break down the philosophical …show more content…

He claims that his six day trip to freedom was as traumatizing as his time during the war (Writing Vietnam). As he told his story during an interview with E. Gordon Gee, he admitted that he literally threw up during dinner from a “spiritual sickness” he felt inside (Writing Vietnam) over the war?. Once O’Brien was finished sharing his story with the interviewer, he admitted that the story he shared never actually happened. He never took a six day trip to the Tip Top Lodge and never met a new friend, who went by the name of Ellroy. His story, to the interviewer, was a blend of the internal and external battle endured. It was a way for him to reveal the truth in what he was feeling without actually telling the truth. This just solidifies the power of O’Brien’s imagination, and how deep he is able to go into his mind; making a reader believe a story that never actually happened in reality, but did in one man’s …show more content…

O’Brien was not the only teenage boy to fight in this war, ?? says that “the average age of U.S. service members in Vietnam was 19, seven years younger than in WWII, making soldiers even more susceptible to psychological strain” (the big reader). The Author took his own experiences and perceptions and applied them to the lives of his characters, which allows readers to also become a part of his stories by incorporating those experiences that everyone can relate

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