The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a short story written and based on his own experiences and trials that he faced in the Vietnam war. Many people remain skeptical about the authenticity of the story, as the short passage does contain horrid details that make people question if this drama should be considered a documentary rather than a novel. While writing this short story, Tim O’Brien did in fact mean to portray his work as a fictional story while at the same time continue to use detailed description and realism to capture the audience's attention and try to draw them into the actual events in the story. Tim O'Brien's overall goal was not to create a novel or a documentary but instead help portray the hardships of the Vietnam war to the reader by creating a gateway that would allow each person to experience and feel the burden of the emotional and physical weight on the soldiers who were desperately fighting for their families, countries, and lives. Some of the major themes that are shown in the novel include the terms hardship and baggage. Throughout the story, O’Brien uses the term “baggage” as a symbol to help portray the hardships that these soldiers had to endure day after day throughout the war. As the story goes on it shows not only the literal meaning of what they carried but also symbolically the burdens that …show more content…
O’Brien mentions the necessities that individuals carried such as, “pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent” but he also slowly begins to mentions the things they carried to remind them that there was a world outside of the war. Making a necessities list gives O’Brien the opportunity to move to a more symbolic sense about these physical and nonphysical items at the end of the