The novel The Things They Carry by Tim O' Brien plays a role of symbolism of wants and needs of each solider. The items of individual soldiers with the platoon expresses home and comfort. Each of individual soldiers carried different items to have reassurance in the Vietnam War. Tim O' Brien not only convey the soldiers needs but they also carried courage, emotions, and struggles. Also, Tim O' Brien wants the reader to see the symbolic of the characters to escape the cruelty of the war. Instead of being in the atrocities of Vietnam War, the soldiers fantasize how their life will be like without violence and death. The issues of each soldier exemplifies with the mental trauma during the war. The soldiers carried more than weapons and items,
