The Things They Carried - Dialogue and Materials

Themes and Dialogue of O’Brien in The Things They Carried War has done many horrible things to many people throughout time all over the world. War experience filled with death, suspense, and constant fear has swept through millions and millions of people who are still scared by the horrific experience. To some so horrific that a normal life, post war, was almost unbearable. But some were able to take the experience and share it to the world. Tim O’Brien is a perfect example of this. O’Brien was born in 1946 in the Midwest, but once of age was drafted into the Vietnam War. O’Brien only served for one year from 1969 to 1970, but nevertheless, the memories gathered in that year lasted him a lifetime. (Herzog) These memories, though some held them in, O’Brien used them to transform his writings to some of the most accurate and touching pieces about war in our generation. “They established O’Brien as on of the most important soldier-authors of the Vietnam generation; furthermore, they establish his reputation as one of America’s most notable postmodernist writers – not only for his themes but also for the structure of his books and his exploration from multiple perspectives of problematic nature of truth and reality” (Herzog, 78). O’Brien was a man who had an objective to be original and construct all of his memories to others the best way he could. And the only way to do that was his way. In an interview of O’Brien, Herzog quotes from him “In this new book [The Things They Carried] I forced myself to try and invent a form. I had never invented form before.” His writings are unique and compared to the normal dialogue of introducing characters; O’Brien takes a different approach and makes his own style. In the book The Things They Carried, O’Brien uses materialistic belongings to show his experiences from a different perspective on war and the people in it without the immediate use of dialogue. O’Brien’s story The Things They Carried is a story of company of men