Nonfiction Elements In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

War changes people. The Vietnam war changed many soldiers, families, and countries who were affected. This war was different from the other wars we had fought in the past. It was long and, it lasted years longer than they had expected. The war became increasingly unpopular at home in the United States. The Things They Carried is a historical fiction novel that follows Tim O’Brien, who is also the protagonist of the book- and his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company during the Vietnam war. Tim O’Brien creates a story that gives off the feeling of nonfiction, but is truly fiction. He was also a soldier who was drafted into Vietnam. Some of his stories throughout the book come from real life events. There are many personal connections, and realistic elements in O’Brien’s characters, whether they really happened or not. The Vietnam War changed many …show more content…
Even today people that served deal with not only physical effects, but many psychological effects as well. During the war they’re exposed to pain, grief, hatred, fear, stress, confusion, and anxiety. Today, many of them have symptoms such as; PTSD, anxiety, depression, temper problems, and many other things. As you can see, even though The Things They Carried is a piece of fiction, there is a lot of nonfiction elements to it. There is a lot of emotion from the soldiers during and after the war. Whether the events in which the characters in the book are real or not, they all were changed after the Vietnam war. Rat Kiley, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, and Norman Bowker experienced events in the Vietnam war that caused them to change. The combination of society rejecting them, their families not understanding them, and the government ignoring them, caused most of the veterans to self-destruct, both mentally and physically. They can never forget the events that occurred and the horrible acts they witnessed. That is how the soldiers in the Vietnam war