cIn the book “The Things They Carried” the main theme is the fear of shame is used as motivation. This theme is used in the book so the main character, Tim, goes to the war. Tim receives a draft notice, “In June of 1968, a month after graduating from Macalester College, I was drafted to fight in a war I hated.” (O’Brien, 38) , to where he has to fight in the Vietnam war, and he does not want to go because he did not like the war but Tim doesn’t want to be a coward. Tim even tries to run away to Canada to avoid going into the war, but something holds him back from going. Now, it’s not your normal patriotism when in fact it’s the fear that if he doesn’t go to the war and fight for his country his family will think of him as a coward. The fear
