The Things They Carried Eating Them Away

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…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.