The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

By Bright Summaries

Unlock the more straightforward side of The Things They Carried with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, a series of interconnected short stories set during the Vietnam War. O’Brien was drafted to fight in Vietnam when he was in his early 20s, and he has written extensively about the conflict in both fiction and nonfiction pieces. In The Things They Carried, he tries to make sense of his and his comrades’ experiences during the war, which have an enduring effect on them and are never fully understood by those at home. As well as The Things They Carried, O’Brien is known for his novel Going After Cacciato and the autobiographical account If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home.

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This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you:
• A complete plot summary
• Character studies
• Key themes and symbols
• Questions for further reflection

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• Language: English
• Publisher: BrightSummaries.com
• Release date: Apr 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9782808019071

Book preview

TIM O’BRIEN

AMERICAN NOVELIST AND SHORT STORY WRITER

Born in Austin, Minnesota in 1946.

Notable works:

If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (1973), autobiographical account

Going After Cacciato (1978), novel

In the Lake of the Woods (1994), novel

Influenced by his own personal experiences in the Vietnam War (1955-1975), where he served as an infantryman from 1969 to 1970, Tim O’Brien has written extensively on Vietnam both in fiction and in nonfiction. His reflections on the war – from how it impacted the American social fabric to how it has affected his own psyche even decades after the fact – have received widespread acclaim for their nuance, and for their examinations of what makes a story ‘true’.

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

A SEMI-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SERIES OF SHORT STORIES SET DURING THE VIETNAM WAR

Genre: short story collection

Reference edition: O’Brien, T. (1991) The Things They Carried. New York: Penguin.

1stedition: 1990

Themes: Vietnam War, ‘truth’ vs ‘fact’, suicide, PTSD, memories, camaraderie, loss

The Things They Carried is a collection of interconnected short stories that span multiple decades and settings, but have a centring force in O’Brien’s personal connections to Vietnam. While grounded in the factual realities of the war and O’Brien’s experiences, the stories are also partly fictionalised: an important distinction throughout the collection is between ‘story-truth’ and ‘happening-truth’. Happening-truth comprises objective chronological events, while story-truth focuses more on the psychological reality of those events for O’Brien and others involved in the Vietnam War.

SUMMARY

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his platoon march endlessly across Vietnam. As the title of the story suggests, the