The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien
The Things They Carried - $7.14
1990

The Things They Carried is a metafiction, a story that breaks with the conventions of a story to discuss the writing of the story. Tim O’Brien originally wrote a short story called The Things They Carried that was published in Esquire. He later revised and expanded the theme of the story into a novel consisting of twenty two stories about a platoon in Vietnam. The book is a fictionalized account of the men he knew in Alpha company.

Metafiction - n. fiction that discusses, describes, or analyzes a work of fiction or the conventions of fiction. 

 O’Brien is writing about Vietnam not because he wants to but because he has to. He is trying to show us what Vietnam was like, the people that fought the war and the price they have to pay. Fifty eight thousand is a number that we all understand but it is just a fact, it has no face. Fifty eight thousand is the number of Americans that died in Vietnam. O’Brien is showing us the faces and consequences of what war really is. He uses metafiction to break into the story, to highlight and expand what war is really like. How he sees the face of the man he killed as the face of a child that once had a life and hopes.

“And then it becomes 1990. I’m forty-three years old, and a writer now,still dreaming...”

The things they carried were many. The things they carried defined them. The things that they carried on them while patrolling; their weapons and ammunition, the pictures of loved ones, the letters from home and the more personal possessions. The things they carried were also intangible, the memories, the hopes and the horrors.

“They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.”

Tim O’Brien does a great job of placing us in his shoes. He is not a hero, he is just another kid that is trying to survive surrounded by death. O’Brien manages to show us a vietnam he experienced not just the one that was reported to us. He shows us the faces of the men and women in Vietnam and their humanizing stories.

Download a sample of the book and share with O’Brien a sense of what it was like to live through Vietnam, to experience it first hand.

.When I first read this book I was surprised at how different Vietnam was from what was shown in movies and books. I was surprised at how different his war was from my own. I am a veteran of the Iraq war. I try not to think about that time too much but this book made me think of the things that I carried to war with me. It reminded me of how actual war was so different from what I had seen in the movies. The anxieties that come with war.

I distinctly remember planning what I should pack for a year away from civilization. Besides the necessities of a toothbrush and shaving cream there were only a couple of things I took with me, books and Tapatio. I am not making light of war, I am being honest. Military food leaves a lot to be desired and Tapatio hot sauce can give it that kick. The books were the most important thing to me. We had a few weeks to plan and prepare to leave and I spent that time buying books to take with me. I spent a few hundred dollars buying books that I wanted to read for awhile. Of course I finished the books early in deployment and I had my family send me more. They also sent me some more Tapatio.

The Things They Carried defined the men O’Brien knew and the things I carried defined me as well, my latino heritage and my love of literature.

If you had to go to war what would you carry? If you are a veteran, what did you carry?

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