The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: An Analysis

Storytelling in and of itself is a form of art; crafting a masterpiece simply from the imagination and past experiences. The Things They Carried is the epitome of the art of storytelling. Tim O'Brien creates the image of soldiers, soldiers at war, within the first couple of pages. Each and every soldier carries weapons, gear, and necessities with them. Soon to be discovered, each and every soldier also carries with them a story. Some stories simply about what they had for breakfast while other stories are complex and challenging, calling out to be determined if true or not. The art of storytelling goes down to the bare essence of what humans are. Humans are sociable creatures, passing down information generation by generation by storytelling. Occasionally, the need to challenge the validity of a story emerges and forces one to question it. O'Brien merges truth and fiction by using the art of storytelling and paradoxical reversals throughout the short stories in The Things They …show more content…
O'Brien’s specific stories are dispersed amongst the entirety of the “novel,” briefly mentioning the death of Rat Kiley’s soulmate in the beginning and then later explaining in full detail, different views and experiences from his death. The tendency to spread-out the tale of Curt Lemon calls for the reader “to piece together information, such as the circumstances surrounding the characters' deaths, in the same manner that the characters must piece together the reality of the war, or, for that matter, Curt Lemon's body” (Calloway). Calloway parallels the structure of The Things They Carried with the stories of his characters, forcing the reader to focus on the individuality of the soldiers to find truth, “O'Brien's truth is always individual; it lies in the idiosyncrasies of individuals”