Tim O’Brien’s "The Things They Carried"

There is a thin line between fact and fiction. This is particularly true in Tim O'Brien's THE THINGS THEY CARRIED. Tim O'Brien expertly dealt with words as he described the atrocities of war in this book.

Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" goes beyond the usual fare of war fiction. As a matter of fact it goes beyond fiction despite the fact that the author labeled it as "a work of fiction" on the title page. The book is an amalgamation of several genres - a memoir, a novel, and a collection of short stories.

O'Brien's genius lies in the fact that he turns fiction into something real so much so that the demarcation of fiction and fact in this story is hardly noticeable. You can never tell when the fact ended and the imagination begins. The war fiction is not about the usual war story where gory tales of hatcheted bodies and non-stop killings abound. Instead, one finds a certain attachment to the characters as O'Brien skillfully narrates the emotional and psychological impact of war on them.

Tim contemplated on how he was indecisive about being drafted for the war. The character Tim O'Brien reacts to his draft notice by going to the Canadian border and spends six days in a isolated lodge in the company of an old man named Elroy while he debates on whether he should evade the draft or accept it. In the end, he decided to go to war not so much he believes in it but more so because he does not want to put his family to shame.

O'Brien explores "the things they carried" both figuratively and literally through the intermittent narration of the lives, even death, of the soldiers comprising the Alpha Company. O'Brien masterfully recounts the emotions going through a soldier during unforgettable moments of his life: his feelings when drafted, his guilt when forced to kill an enemy, his shock at seeing friends or fellow soldiers killed in action and the gnawing feeling of homesickness.

The plot is simple but told several times through different character's point of view, making it appear more complex than it seems. Love is one of the motivating factor for Tim's need to tell the story. Tim O'Brien, the character professes his love for a girl when they were little.

In the end, Tim admitted that his penchant for telling stories and why he needs to do it as he relates his life to the soldiers. He knows it can bring the dead loved ones back to life, as if they are still with us. The soldiers do this to shield them from painful memories of losing a friend or killing a person. Tim, the character, tells stories since he was a child, when he lost the first girl he ever loved to brain tumor. The stories may change -characters, places, and events - but the storyteller keeps the memories alive.