The Things They Carried 2

The Heaviness of the Vietnam War In all wars, whether justifiable or not, whether there is a moral benefit or not, or whether unavoidable or not, there is always human suffering on all parties involved. A war affects everyone involved in the conflict either directly or indirectly. Frequently, the horrors of war directly affect noncombatant civilian populations surrounding the areas of military campaigns. Always, family units are indirectly affected by having family members in the …

…opinion of the War. In "The things They Carried," O'Brien personalizes the Vietnam War for readers. He uses the characters in the story to make his opinion about the Vietnam War while illustrating the negative effect Wars have on soldiers, particularly, the Vietnam War. No matter how justifiable and necessary Wars (conflict among political groups involving hostilities of considerable duration and magnitude) are, they always have victims. Wars dehumanize the combatants and frequently the noncombatants.