The Vietnam War is undoubtedly the most controversial foreign affair in US history. With all the American opposition and protest, unfortunately the Soldiers, who risked their lives for our freedom, took most of the brute criticism. Tim O'Brien, a Vietnam vet and a brilliant award-winning author, shares with us a fictional first person view of a group of young men fighting for our country, and risking their lives each and every day to preserve our freedom. In The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, O'Brien uses imagery, repetition, historical context, and personal experience to portray the life of a Vietnam Soldier and the sacrifices they made to protect this country.

All throughout the book O'Brien uses distinct imagery, not necessarily to show the hardships and gruesome aspects of War, but the effects it has on these soldiers, and the things they carry to help them cope with the harsh reality of War. On the second page O'Brien lists some of the necessary items that the soldiers carried, can openers, pocket knives, dog tags, matches, food rations, and water. O'Brien then goes into more personal items that the Soldiers carried. For example, Lieutenant Cross carried the pictures of Martha, Ted Lavender carried a couple pounds of premium dope, Kiowa carried the New Testament, and Rat Kiley carried comic books. The men also carried infection, disease, and the land itself in the particles of dust and mud. They carried unconditional fear. They carried the weight of memory; they carried ghosts. They carried the burden of being alive; they carried all they could bear, and then some. O'Brien's purposeful use of repetition of the word carry serves a very important theme in this book. When he talks about the things they carry it doesn't just pertain to physical objects. They also carry emotional burdens, fear and the weight of their reputation.

Imagery and symbolism weren't the only things that contributed to the success of Tim O'Brien's novel. The historical context of this book serves its purpose as a guide to help better understand the lives and actions of the soldiers.

The Vietnam War was one of the longest military conflicts in U.S. history, claiming the lives of more than 58,000 Americans and wounding more than 300,000. Estimates place the number of killed or wounded North and South Vietnamese at roughly four million soldiers and civilians, roughly 10% of the population. In 1959, North and South Vietnam were divided along what is known as the "17th parallel." The North Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front sought to unify the country under Communist rule. The South Vietnamese army struggled to maintain independence. In 1964, the U.S. Congress authorized President Lyndon B. Johnson to take steps "to prevent further aggression" and keep the South Vietnamese government from collapsing.

The American public during the Vietnam War were anything but supportive of the soldiers fighting in Vietnam. The American public thought we had no right to be involved in Vietnam, and it was a waste of military funds and personnel. They called soldiers baby killers and held protests when soldiers returned from the war. While reading this book, readers have a sense of how the soldiers were perceived at this time in history, and to me and I think most readers there is this sort of sympathy for these soldiers. Many of these men were drafted into the war, having no opinion or say in the decision. They went to Vietnam to risk their lives and fight for the country they love; yet the people who they are fighting for are calling them cowards and murderers. The media also had a great impact on the perception of the Vietnam War. It was the first war that was televised was talked about all over the country.

Although Imagery, symbolism, repetition and historical context all play an important role in making this such an excellent novel, the one aspect that stood out to me and captured my true interest and understanding, was Tim O'Brien's personal experience of the Vietnam War. When reading this book and trying to understand each of the characters, there is a sense of realness and authenticity. Instead of looking at it as complete non-fiction, there is something that O'Brien uses in his language and tone that makes it seem real. O'Brien blurs the distinction between fact and fiction. This resulting in that it is impossible to know whether or not any given event in the stories truly happened to O'Brien. O'Brien's aim in blending fact and fiction is to make the point that the objective truth of a war story is less relevant than the act of telling a story by itself.

"War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead" (Tim O'Brien).

This quote by Tim O'Brien in my mind sums up the overall message O'Brien is trying to convey in The Things They Carried. All the literary techniques, images, symbols, historical context and personal experiences are all summed up in this quote. The Things They Carried is more than just a war story; it's a work of art that is conveying a message about war in general. War shapes you as a person, it molds you to the person you will become there is no escaping it.
