Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is a fictional tail of the Vietnam War told from the perspective of various characters in a platoon. By using exaggerations and explicit details, O'Brien suggests that the truth about a historical event is not necessarily the way a story should be told and not necessarily the way people in a specific place want to be informed about it, but at the same time, extensions of the truth in stories help emphasize the main theme or message being conveyed. Although this may happen in war stories, the exaggerations adds to the message of the story and may be a more accurate depiction of how an individual in the war may have felt during a tragic event or during hard times. So although O'Brien certs that many war stories told by a country will most likely favor their country, the exaggerations help the readers realize how the soldier actually felt during combat even if it is an exaggeration.

In many situations especially in countries like the United States, people want to hear dramatic tails when it comes to war and battle experiences.  In The Things They Carried, O'Brien emphasizes the idea that many people prefer romantic war tales by giving many personal details about characters when he talks about character Lieutenant Jimmy Cross: "First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack" (221). By giving great detail on peoples' personal feelings and life, people can relate to the characters in the story or recognize a persona that is recycled in many characters throughout literature. O' Brien hints that at the very beginning of his work and gives the reader the idea that his novel will not be purely factual. By straying from the facts, he veers from the details of the war and focuses more on the details involving the people who fought the war and how they felt, attaching the reader to characters.  At the same time O'Brien still gives information on specific details, which will still give the novel the element of reliability. He does so when he lists the other items in the soldiers' bags when he says, "The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near- necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water" (222).  Although the things they needed to carry is not the most important detail in the novel, by listing and giving facts about what they carried, O'Brien can look reliable to the readers as well as gain their trust, so he can later exaggerate the truth and ultimately prove his point that people prefer to hear what they want to hear instead of the ugly truth. He still gives enough facts so the reader has an adequate understanding of what actually happened in the war and the details of the things they carried.

O' Brien also stresses the idea that Americans and other people who live in other countries that have been through wars want to believe that the people fighting the war are doing so for the right cause and are very conscious about events that occur. O'Brien does so by giving the personal beliefs and explaining the hardships that the soldiers had to face during combat, especially after the loss of a member of the platoon. He explains this by giving details on death when he says, "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. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture" (232).  O'Brien reveals the weaknesses of the soldiers to still give them mortal characteristics so that the reader does not depict the men at war as animalistic, barbaric or cold blooded killers. He gives the soldiers a sense of compassion to explain how history fools the readers into believing that their country may have higher morals or more sympathy than another. Although the main tactics of exaggeration used by O'Brien to prove the point that patriotic literature only gives readers the information they want to hear, O'Brien later reveals some harsh truth, which are hints to the readers that the facts of war are sometimes disguised to enhance the readers' feelings of war and have them sympathize for their country. O'Brien does so when he explains the reason why soldiers go to war when he says, " Men killed and died, because they were embarrassed not to.  It was what had brought them to war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment" (232). O'Brien does this to shed some light on why soldiers actually go to war and how they do not necessarily go to war to be a patriot but for reasons of self consciousness. This is especially relevant in a war like Vietnam, a war with some disagreement within the country and a war where many died and went to war unclear of why the United States was fighting. O'Brien wants to transition from making the reader feel comfortable with the war efforts to surprised at some of the embarrassing secrets some soldiers may have had.

While many war novels, paintings, articles and other pieces of work may show nationalistic and patriotic values as well as support for the cause of involvement, O'Brien in his novel The Things They Carried, gives the reader a lot to think about when it comes to the truthfulness of war. O'Brien agrees that the best war stories are the ones that have the most exaggeration but that also helps render his fact that the reason why those may be the best are because true war stories may show people that their country has flaws and has made mistakes which they do not want to take responsibility for. In other words, countries lie to look more level headed in their effort to accomplish or obtain a goal they want.  This is why Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is such an interesting novel giving a completely new prospective of war and the feelings as well as the events that occurred during it. Because in the end the facts of the past do not define a country but the history written by a country trumps all.  This war story is different from other war stories because the main theme is not about war but about how countries tell war stories based on how they want their citizens to react to them. Still O' Brien mentions and understands that a good war story will have some stretched truth in order to tell the story from the perspective of the soldiers in war and how they truly felt during war.
