Perhaps the strongest motif in "The Things They Carried", by Tim O‘Brien, is the sense of longing and loneliness. Throughout most of O‘Brien‘s short stories, the biggest war time struggle for soldiers deployed in Vietnam is not necessarily with the actual enemy. Each soldier seems to be caught in a never ending battle with his own conscience, using fear and isolation as weapons, and stories as defense. As a separate war with morality rages on in each mind, loneliness sets in and deals a long lasting blow. Even after the Vietnam war, O‘Brien illustrates a character named Bowker who, though long retired, feels completely isolated from humanity and is on an unsuccessful search for consolation. It would appear O‘Brien is trying to express the idea
