The Things They Carried is a historical non-fiction novel from Vietnam written by Tim O’Brien. The excerpt read in class deals mostly with the actual experiences O’Brien had in Vietnam, along with the experiences of his fellow soldiers. In the excerpt, O’Brien deals a lot with what the soldiers carried. He touches on the experiences of one man and his love for a girl back home. He also touches on some cultural references regarding the world and the Vietnam War. He does so through talking about the soldiers. By looking at the public opposition to the Vietnam War in terms of The Things They Carried we can see that the Vietnam War was a near pointless endeavor for the soldiers who fought in it. This is important because it gives the reader more background to judge the book off of. The objects that appear in the text are all made all the more prominent.

When writing The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien was out of the War and wrote the book by looking back on his past experiences. Having lived through the Vietnam War, and the years leading up to it, O’Brien and his book The Things They Carried serves as an excellent source of information on the effect of the American public’s opinion of the Vietnam War on the War. 

Wars are greatly affected by the county’s opinion of it. If a country’s public supports the war that they are in, then there is more positive backing for it. This will give more motivation to the soldiers doing the actual fighting and can therefore result in an invigorated fighting corps. This is a huge upper hand in any battle. World War Two is a good example of this. The United States had great public support for the War and a massive effort was produced by a feeling of patriotism during the War. This led to the military being more upbeat and gave the soldiers more motivation to fight. On the other hand, this support of wars can change drastically in different contexts. One example is the Vietnam War. Unlike other wars, America’s involvement in this conflict was not supported by the public. The highest rate of opposition in the public reached nearly 70 percent. This was in 1969, around the time O’Brien became involved in the War. (Hamby 139).  

One thing that Tim O’Brien and his soldiers encountered was the draft. The draft, in order to get more people to fight in Vietnam did not give the soldiers a choice to decide whether or not they supported the War. They were either forced to go fight a war on foreign ground or to flee and evade the draft. O’Brien, in an interview with Larry McCaffery stated directly that he considered fleeing from the daft. He did not want to go fight in Vietnam. Also in this interview, he states that he supported the views of Gene McCarthy and did not support the war in his college days. If this is taken into account when the Things They Carried is read, it tells a lot about O’Brien’s stance on the War. 

Evidence of this public opinion is found in the text. There is no patriotism in the things we carried. In the excerpt read in The Carolina Reader, there is no “let’s go America!” or anything alike. All O’Brien talks about is the duties done by the soldiers and how they slowly and sadly carried the things they did. O’Brien talks about the death of Ted Lavender and goes into descriptions of the hardships that the soldiers had to go through. 

In the excerpt read, one of the duties done by the soldiers is clearing tunnels found in the Vietnam jungles. The soldiers drew straws to see who had to do the job. No one volunteered. This was not a motivated mission. The opinion of America was shared by these soldiers O’Brien talks about. They did not want to be there. Simple words in the text such as “He was just a kid at war” (Harley, et al 334) make the story of the excerpt all the more emotional. The main character, Lieutenant Cross was in love with a girl before he was sent overseas to war. The story touches on his experiences carrying his love for her while in battle. This boy was taken by the draft to fight in a war he did not – and the public did not – want to be in. On top of that he was in love. This gives O’Brien’s story much more weight.

There is one quote in the text that is worthy of mention. This quote perfectly captures O’Brien’s and his men’s feelings towards the war. The quote goes, “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” (Harley, et al 339). O’Brien and his soldiers did not escape the draft and refuse to go to war almost purely out of possible embarrassment. In the interview mentioned previously with Larry McCaffery, O’Brien mentions that he considered escaping the draft but did not in order to escape embarrassment. He states, “I sensed that the people I cared for in my life – friends, college acquaintances, professors – would have looked askance at my deserting” (McCaffery 133). It was not pride or patriotism that drove these men to Vietnam, but largely the fear of embarrassment in front of their own people. This gives all the more support to the soldiers in the text. It makes the objects they carry more important. 

In a practical sense, besides carrying love and memories of their families, the soldiers carried weapons and supplies and personal artifacts relating to their position and mission. In the excerpt, O’Brien names a multitude of things carried by these soldiers. To the everyday reader, this may not seem like something special. When the opinion of the soldiers and the public’s view is considered, these objects become all the more important. These objects that the men carried were all they had. It was all they had to cling to in the War. They had little hope and barely any motivation to hold too. In contrast, During World War Two, there was a great deal of motivation to fight. From 1940 to 1943 around 70 percent of the nation thought that every able bodied man should go to fight for the country (Berinsky, et al). Compare that to extreme disapproval of the Vietnam War. These two distinct views on the wars have great impacts on the level of morale for the soldiers on the ground fighting them. 

The public opinion on any war has a huge impact on the country fighting the war. It has a huge impact on the soldiers fighting the war and their performance can be drastically changed because of it. This changes with historical context. Some wars are heavily supported, like World War Two and some are not heavily supported, like the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The excerpt read from Tim O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried deals directly with the experiences of the soldiers in Vietnam. Understanding the public’s view of the Vietnam war can dramatically change the way this excerpt is read. Without this historical context it is just another war story like so many others. With this historical context in mind, the story becomes much sincerer and sad at the same time. Because of the sadness, the objects in the text are the only thing to focus on. Both the soldiers and the readers have nothing else to think about. 
