The Things They Carried

I just finished reading a fictional book called The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. I felt a deep satisfaction after reading this book because it is not a typical book that I would go for- it's about soldiers, war, killing, etc. Despite the somber tone of the book, it was nice to go out of my usual routine. I chose to read it mostly because the juniors at my high school are required to read it as a part of their American literature class, and it is paired nicely with the US History curriculum that I teach. You see, The Things They Carried is all about Vietnam.
This book is a collection of many short stories based on the author's life experiences while serving in Vietnam. Although the book is considered fiction, the reader is fully aware of the reality of the book- it had to be based on the author's life. The book is mostly a cathartic cleansing of the author's conscience realties and, perhaps, guilt of the war. O'Brien is honest about the madness, his feelings, and his life today. I appreciate the author's honesty in this book the most...his honesty about the emotional effects of the Vietnam War show that his feelings are still raw thirty to forty years after the events.

Beyond the honesty, O'Brien's writing is very different. Each chapter is a different story, but they flow together. Some chapters explain the author's perspective before and during the war in a first or third person narrative. Then, there are a few chapters that are written with the author's present voice. The jumping back and forth could have been distracting and chaotic. But, the manner in which O'Brien is able to piece the book together actually enhances the reader's overall impression of what it is like to be a surviving soldier of Vietnam. There are many themes that jump around through out these chapters. The biggest theme is death- the death of a friend, platoon member, and the Vietnamese. O'Brien continuously looks at death showing how it was valued or devalued, taken seriously or not seriously, thought about or avoided.

I remember a technique I learned in a college creative writing course- a writer should always stick to a story that one knows a lot about. Obviously, O'Brien does this. However, O'Brien adds one more piece- he wrote the book for himself. There may be a chapter he wrote for his platoon members or for his daughter. But, the bottom line is that he did not write it for money, he did not write it for fame...he did not write it to win a Pulitzer prize (for which he was a finalist for). He wrote the book mainly to lift the weight off his chest and be honest with what happened in his life- he wrote it to make sense of an event in his life that he really had very little choice to partake in.