The Things They Carried (Tyler Beaudry)

The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, Broadway Books, 246 pp

I found this book in the high school library.

Summary: In this book the narrator is telling the story to the audience. The way it is written is a nice way to read. Tim O'Brien, the narrator, tells individual stories throughout the entire book. So one section may have nothing good but the next could really have a lot of good things to read. These stories are all taking place in Vietnam. O'Brien is like the third person looking in on it all. You hear about all of these deaths and how it plays tricks with people. It puts guilt on many of the soldiers in the war. Many never get over what they saw. The death of O'Brien best friend, Kiowa is a big part of this book. All of the other stories do not involve O;Brien but this one hits home for him. once again he has one more thing to carry. The guilt of his best friend dying. This is what the title means. The soldiers from Vietnam carry guns,matches, and morphine but some things they carry are much heavier like the fear they have and the guilt that have. guilt plays a big role throughout the book. O'Brien almost leaves the army but he would feel guilty if he did so he stayed.

Audience: People who are interested in war could read this novel and those who like the physiological aspect of it and how he shows what they really are thinking.

His style is like that. He brings in some detail and he can almost make you feel what they do or get a good sense of what they thought.

Passages:

" They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight." (pg 21 The Things They Carried)

This passage shows that the emotion may not be touchable but to them it is and weighs them down tremendously. This shows how emotional problems are an easy thing to have when fighting a war and seeing somethings that you wish you may have not seen but now are stuck in your brain forever.

" He lay face-up in the center of the trial, a slim, dead, almost dainty young man. He had bony legs, a narrow waist, long shapely fingers. His chest was sunken and poorly muscled --a scholar, maybe." (pg 124 The Things They Carried)

This is when O'Brien has killed his first human. he has this image in his mind and the descriptiveness of this young man that has no training besides that of trying to be a educated man.

" By telling stories, youobjectify your own experience. You seperate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others." (pg 158 The Things They Carried)

This passage shows that the things that go on are things unexplainable. You can put it down on paper or tell stories of it it but it all may not be the truth. The troubling things tht they carry have to be seen in a different light to make sense for others.

My Relationship:
When I frist saw the book I thought it would be about a war. the more I read into the book the more it began to morph into more meanings. it stated to talk about the emptions of the charachter and the weapons that he held. It was a good book due to the point of view. That is what made me keep reading. The style with all of the stories inside of this one book kept it intresting.