Underwater And The Things They Carried: Literary Analysis

How to Breathe Underwater and The Things They Carried are books that are told through letters and mini stories. Tim O’Brien’s short story is told through letters from his comrades from his time in the Vietnam War. The letters express love, grief and remorse. On the other hand, Orringer’s stories are told through the point of young woman or girls who are struggling with decisions like religion, love, sexuality, and beauty. Both stories are neither light or uplifting, they ponder very serious emotional issues that the characters in the stories must overcome. Orringer and O’Brien worlds are very different, but they both underline the issues that humans must struggle with when life takes us on different journeys throughout our lifetime. The stories
The two stories both told of defeat and remorse for past horrors and mistakes. Orringer’s story takes us through childhood, adolescents, and then adulthood, while O’Brien takes us through denial, tragedy, and to a lesser extend acceptance. Through the letters and stories, we are not just getting glimpse of individual characters in the story, but a look into the hearts of the authors. We can see through the eyes of the writer and feel their pain as they are trying to explain to us their world through words, sounds and imaginary. O’Brien gives us a look into his life as he fighting the war in Vietnam and Orringer’s allows us to hear the cries of the women as they try to make the right decisions in difficult situations. The fundamental themes in both stories seem to center around people who have emotional and physical hardships that they must deal with in order to continue on in their lives. The stories are told through a unique way of storytelling, as the reader we are able to share the experiences with the characters in the stories. We feel their fear, despair, hurt, passion, and love. So what happen to all the people in the