Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried Essay

The Things They Carried is a non fiction war novel written by Tim O’Brien published in 1990. In this book, Tim O’Brien shares stories about soldiers in the Vietnam War. The soldiers tell about the things they carry with them during the war and why they carried them. They tell each other stories that are both entertaining and emotional. This brings the soldiers closer together making it very traumatic when some of them are killed. Tim O’Brien tells about the horrible things that happen during the war and how it affects the soldiers. An interesting person on this book is Jimmy Cross. When he was in college he signed up to go to military training because it gave him credits and his friends were also signing up. Once he goes to war he becomes a lieutenant, but he is inexperienced and ill-equipped. He is proud to be known as a leader, but he is not comfortable being responsible for his men’s lives. Jimmy is also not emotionally fit to be a leader because he lets his love for Martha, a girl from college that he is obsessed with, get in the way. He carries photographs, letters, and objects from her, even though he knows she does not love him back …show more content…
This event is significant to history because it resulted in the deaths of 60,000 american soldiers. It was also the longest war in American. The book reflects the time it was written because the soldiers write letters instead of calling their loved ones. It talks about the fear people had of being drafted in the war and how some of them got out of it. The emotions of people living in that time were fear and sadness. They were afraid and sad that their loved ones had to go to war and could possibly die or already be dead. The soldiers were always feeling guilt about their fellow soldiers deaths. These event affect the world we live in today because if America would have won the Vietnam War, it would have changed a lot of different things, all the way up to how life is