The Things They Carried Literary Analysis

The fiction novel written by Tim O’Brien called The Things They Carried uses a lot of nonfiction stories within the novel. O’Brien also uses characterization of the soldiers in the platoon to illustrate the emotional weight that they carry. Tim O’Brien in The Things They Carried mentions,” By and large they carried these things inside, maintaining the masks of composure”(21). He focuses on Jimmy Cross, Mark Fossie, Kiowa, Curt Lemon and several other soldiers in the platoon including himself. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a book about the Vietnam War. In this novel O’Brien takes a main focus on the emotional and physical weight that the soldiers carry. In the beginning of the story O’Brien focuses on the physical components of what the soldiers carry, along with the sentimental value of the things they carry. Such as Jimmy Cross carrying the pictures of Martha, pebbles from Martha, and Henry Dobbins carrying his girlfriend’s panty hose around his neck. Toward the middle of the novel Tim O’Brien mentions the emotional toll that killing other soldiers has on the soldiers. He tells us the thoughts that go through the soldiers heads and how each death impacts them the most. He also talks about the questions that the soldiers have after they kill another soldier, such as, what life they live back home. By the end of
O’Brien wrote the short story “Speaking of Courage” in relation to Norman Bowker and the effect that Kiowa’s death had on him emotionally. “You couldn’t even sleep,” he’d tell his father. “At night you’d find a high spot, and you’d doze off, but then later you’d wake up because you’d be buried in slime. You’d just sink in. You’d feel it ooze up over your body and sort of suck you down”(136). These are the thoughts that go through Norman Bowker’s mind while thinking of a letter to Kiowa’s