the things they carried

Subject: Tim O'Brien's-The Things They Carried Eating Them Away For young people, the Vietnam War is a thing of the past and they can only learn about it from second hand sources. In Tim O'brien's The Things They Carried, it becomes very apparent that the Vietnam conflict has proved to be one that many of the participants have not been able move away from, while getting on with their lives. O²brien shows that the …

…they bother him a great deal. There are countless themes in this book, but one of the major ones is the after effects the war had and still has on the men that were there. It is clear from O'Brien's writing on Cross, Bowker, and himself is more than just story telling. In using these people he attempts to show what the war has done to the population of soldiers that participated in the conflict.