The Things They Carried

This was such an interesting story by Tim O’Brien. I was captivated by the story and the writing style. I read a bit of his biography after I finished the story and knowing he served in the army and won a Purple Heart adds a lot to the story. At first I was unsure of what the point of the story was going to be. Now that I am finished I am still unsure of what the ‘moral’ of the story is. He tells of how Mitchell Sanders cut off the dead boy’s thumb and carried it around because it had a moral. He fails to tell us what that moral is and I am still unsure. I think that was an insight into the bigger picture. The entire short story has a moral, I just don’t know what it is. At first I thought it was Love and Death, but the author introduced so many more themes. The lieutenant was obviously madly in love, and the characters faced death every day. But Tim O’Brien then focus’ on the imagination and how every man carried with them their ‘ghosts’ and Lt. Cross was never fully present due to his imagination. I love how the author gave so much detail about the tangible things they carried. Not only did it help the reader visualize the characters, but it showed what was important to them. Giving so much detail about the tangible things gave O’Brien a license to give detail about the intangible things they carried as well, i.e ‘guilt, fear, ghosts’. O’Brien did an excellent job of connecting the reader to the characters in a unique way. This short story really intrigued me and I want to read more from this author. I enjoy his writing style as well as his odd way of getting his feelings across to the reader.