Summary Of The Book 'The Things They Carried By Tim O' Brien

The Things They Carried Colby Earles In this book the author Tim O' Brien uses many different little stories to sum of the big picture of war. He focuses in on many different characters, stories, and their specific feelings to help the reader get an actual feel of what he felt. Which he states on pg. 171 " I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer than happening-truth". While O' Briens main connection to the title focus's in on what each soldier physically carried, deeper than that is the soldiers own feelings, doubts, and fears. Every soldier in the war had their own responsibility of what to carry. O' Brien focuses heavily on this in the beginning of the book. Everybody had the basics, can openers, c rations, dog tags, cigarettes, matches, water e.t.c. Outside of that each soldier had a thing to carry unlike the others. Ted Lavender held all the dope, Mitchell Sanders carried the 26 pound PRC-25 radio, Henry Dobbins carried the heavy machine gun. Rat Kiely being the medic carried the morphine, plasma, and malaria tablets along with some surgical tape.
In this writing he can almost put the reader in his shoes. This was a pointless war that many young men were forced into. He didn't want to be there but he feels it is his responsibility and is to coward to just run away from it even though he has the chance when he is on the boat with Elroy in the chapter " On the Rainy River". That last sentence may have confused the reader of this essay a little. They might be thinking to themselves, " wouldn't running away from the war make them a coward apples to going to it" and that's what you should think. But O' Brien states in the book not doing what you think is right is coward. He wants to just run away from it all but is to worried about what his friends and family will think of him. He lets the opinions of others get in the way of what he wants which he defines as