Reader Response: "The Things They Carried"

The Things They Carried is a personal story about Tim O'Brien's experience in the Vietnam War. He combines many accounts of personal experiences into stories that can relate to each other. The title "The Things They Carried" has great significance to the book. What the soldiers carried reflects their fears, passions, and necessities. Throughout the novel Tim does not mention what he carried during the war but rather what his friends carried. From what they carried in the field I was able to relate and discover each of his friends' personalities without much more explanation.

One of the characters that I really learned to respect was Rat Kiley. He serves as the medic of the group and seems to be very well prepared. After Tim's bad experience with Jorgenson he recalls the moments when Rat Kiley would never let him down. Rat Kiley always kept his cool and seems to be a pretty dependable character. It was unfortunate that he could not handle the psychological effects of the war and eventually became insane. Another character that I have much respect for is Kiowa. Whenever there was a moral dilemma in the group Kiowa would show his strengths and offer advice and encouragement to the group. When Tim was new to the group and was ridiculed for not treating the dead a certain way Kiowa was there to offer him companionship and moral backup. A character that seem sketchy to me is Azar. Azar is a wild soldier with little concern for consequences. One thing that made me turned off by Azar's personality was when he took the prank with Tim too far. It is one thing to play a little revenge joke on someone but Azar seemed to almost enjoy torturing Jorgenson. Azar let go of all his moral sense and at one time even said, " Out here, at night, I almost feel like a kid again. The Vietnam experience. I mean, wow I love this shit" (212). Towards the end Azar actually began to enjoy war and was more concerned with the adrenaline rush than with human dignity.

The chapter where O'Brien explains how he killed a man really moved me. I could almost feel the regret with him. I thought that the chapter really looked into the author's experience with death and human nature instead of focusing on the other characters. You could tell that at the time of the killing O'Brien was young and inexperienced in the war. The way he just sat there explaining over and over the way the young man looked showed how shocked he was. He mentioned in the chapter the life the man might have had and in a way it showed how vulnerable O'Brien was feeling. Kiowa kept telling him that it was better off him not being the one dead and O'Brien realizes how fast life can be taken away from someone. I enjoyed the section on Mark Fossie and his girlfriend. The way Tim O'Brien explains the story shows how great of a story teller the author is. In many sections of his writing he includes clues as to how to tell a true war story from a fake one. The story of Mark Fossie and his girlfriend I believe was fake and that the reason O'Brien included it in his plot was to show what makes a good story from a bad one.

I found many themes by the end of this book. Among them are: blame, storytelling, love and war. The theme of blame is inserted into every moral story that is told. The blame is always being thrown around and everyone has different degrees of blame. After the death of Kiowa Norman Bowker took the majority of the blame. It ate him up inside and he could not bear the thought of his own failure. Jimmy Cross also blamed himself for Kiowa's death by declaring that he should have set up in a different area. The concept of blame is thrown around in this book and blame is what caused most of the men to go crazy and to not be able to handle the war. Another theme that I found most present in the book was the concept of storytelling. In many places Tim O'Brien gives the reader hints as to what makes a good story. He tells the reader that to some a story might have happened one way and to someone else it may have happened another way, he explains that stories are all based on perception. O'Brien also tells the reader that in order to make some stories interesting you have to "heat up the truth". To me this is a very thought provoking theme. What stories are real and which ones are made up? How much of the text is from Tim O'Briens first hand account and not passed on through a friend?

I enjoyed reading this book to the highest level. The stories although completely different related to each other in a larger way. The life lessons and eye openers that Tim O'Brien includes in his book was what got me hooked.