Essay, Research Paper: The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried

A major war in American History was the Vietnam War. It affected the lives of many soldiers and families. Vietnam was a war that took many innocent lives in horror but with each life there was a story. Each soldier handled the war a different way and the war changed every man that went to Vietnam. Tim O'Brien in the novel The Things They Carried, expresses how the war affected people through his relationships and experiences.

A powerful experience Tim went through was with the man he killed who he saw face to face. He couldn't bring to terms what he had done and it will probably forever change him. Tim described this as if it were almost happening, "His jaw was in his throat. His was one eye was shut and the other was a star-shaped hole."(141) In some part of him Tim's mind was going crazy because it played over and over in his mind. Going into war he probably knew he was going to take someone's life but when it came down to it I think he hated himself for it. He didn't talk he just stared at the body and went crazy in his mind looking at the deformed body lie on the dirt path.


During the Vietnam it caused many heartaches and Tim O'Brien experience this through the lost of his friends. Kiowa was one of the good friends in the war who was lost in the field. "He was alone. He'd lost everything. He'd lost Kiowa and his weapon and his flashlight and his girlfriend's picture. He remembered this. He remembered wondering if he could lose himself." (193) Consequently, from losing Kiowa he was face with the fact that not only he lost a friend but also he couldn't do anything about it. On the other hand he had a fear that he could lose himself maybe to the field or to Vietnam itself. " All he wanted was a bath. Nothing else. A hot soapy bath." Tim saying this is stating that they want out and they want to go home. They hated Vietnam and they hated the death that they were faced with.

The Aftermath affected Tim O'Brien in his family as well. When he came home he once again had to face reality. At one point he decided to go back to Vietnam and back to the horror. He also decided to take his daughter Katherine with him. When they went it wasn't the same and she couldn't quite understand what had gone on and what hr father had experienced. "The war was as remote to her as caveman and dinosaurs" (208) It seemed that unless you experienced it like Tim O'Brien and the other soldiers, you could only relate and try to contemplate not remember. When Tim tried to show her and have Katherine understand it was no use. He visited where Kiowa had died and the field was still there but it wasn't the same. The deadly smell and the atsmophere had changed. This reality he went through that things had changed and he had to accept Kiowa's death to Vietnam. Tim had to put the horror and nightmares behind him during this trip, which was an extremely rocky road.

Vietnam might have taken Tim O'Brien because of what he went through during and after. Vietnam changed the lives of many. It affected feelings and took many lives. Weather it was all worth all the lose depends on from person to person. Tim O' Brien shared his stories and reality maybe to open our eyes and realize that life is more precious than we think.