We as humans always tend to write in a way that reflects our culture, and ourselves but our writing doesn’t stay the same throughout our lives. As we live and move through different historical and cultural movements we are changed and thus our writing is changed. This change in our text can be anything from the style used, to the values we uphold, and what we focus our overall writing on. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the author uses these elements within the text to indicate and describe one of the most contrasting and outrageous cultural transitions in America.

The Things They Carried is a novel depicting the events of the Vietnam War, and is very successful in showing the readers what the war was really like, in addition to the affects it had on everyone. It is also just as successful in showing the culture and certain cultural changes within the text. This is shown in the novel through the use of many stories, contrasts, and descriptions of what “The Things they Carried” are. In the very beginning of the book, the author simply lists out all that they carry. It is mostly just military gear and such, but as he goes on the list grows, the author adds the weight of each individual item, and the gear just piles onto the shoulders of the young men. This massive weight can very well symbolize the burden that they carry with them everywhere throughout the war, not just in terms of gear but also in terms of what their families and the nation are expecting of them.  O’Brien even says, “They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried”(O’Brien 4). What they carry is almost nothing but instruments of death and destruction, which has a lot of metaphorical weight, and there is no one else other than the individual soldier to carry this burden. This burden and living a life of war can affect anyone drastically, because all the soldiers’ want is to be free, at home, in peace where they belong, but their government has sacrificed their life and cast them into war. This feeling is what changed their ideas towards the war and their government, and is part of what lead to the anti-war culture. Often in times of war a nation seems to unite against a common enemy, but in the wake of the Vietnam War America seemed to divide against one another. This cultural division changed an entire society in addition to the writings and texts of this society, which is illustrated, in this case, with the description of the things they carried.

In addition to the gear they carry, many of these soldiers carried things that aren’t for necessity. They carried everything from salt, rations, and cards to pictures, letters and even weed. These were often carried to bring them away from the horrors of death and war, for example lieutenant cross carries letters from his girl back home. He reads them to take his mind off the fighting, and to find happiness. Most authors wouldn’t dare do this but at one point O’Brien tells the readers of Crosses love for her and her utter beauty, and then in just a snap, he jumps straight into a gory death scene. He describes Cross before by saying “He was buried with Martha under the white sand at the Jersey shore. They were pressed together, and the pebble in his mouth was her tongue. He was smiling. (O’Brien 6) and then jumps straight into “Right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head …”(O’Brien 7) By moving straight from a detailed love dream into the violence of war, the author gives us a contrast of before the war and during the war, and thus illustrates what he is dreaming of or what he wants, which is the complete opposite of where he is. His hopes and dreams at the moment are just to be with his love in peace and harmony but he has been thrown into war. This is the contrast that is shown within this section of the text and is also how we can understand the cultural impact of this text, because we are shown that many of the individuals in Vietnam during this time period in history did not share the same values as the rest of the nation. It is this display within the text that shows us the division of the culture between peace and war during this time period, which is so influential to the text itself.

Just like the soldiers on the front, the war affected people back home as well. People had some of the same ideas as the soldiers in that, it was a pointless war and is not worth fighting in. People wanted their soldiers back home and the war to be over, but not everyone felt this way. Some felt that this war was necessary to protect America’s interests, and needed to be fought. These strong and differing ideas split the nation in two, and created our own battle at home. A battle over the importance of the war and its overall worth. Many of America’s youth were involved in this heavily, by initiating the anti-war movement and using riots and rallies, songs and poems to push their hate for the war. Part of the reason for their aggressive responses were because they felt that the soldiers had no voice and thought it was their job to help. It was these actions and battles between sides that brought forth the change in American culture, much of which was shown on television and in songs. An article by the L.A. times says “This new pop culture sensibility embraced a provocative anti-authoritarianism that offered a clean break from the sunny optimism of most films and music in the 1950s and early 1960s. The war sparked an era of distrust, paranoia and cynicism among musicians, filmmakers, novelists and comedians. It could be heard everywhere, but especially in pop music”(L.A. times 2). The same cultural shift that altered much of the music during this historical time period also affected texts like O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”. In this time of war, movies, articles, and novels were written in support of the war, but during this time we again see the cultural change in the way these texts and devices portrayed the war. They used to describe the war in a way that pleased American public, and urged for more support, but during this time many chose to take the same route as O’Brien by displaying the war as a true and much worse reality. Much like how we could see the cultural change in the soldiers through the text, we can also see the same cultural shift on the home front because of the songs, movies, articles, and more. 

Understanding that this time period had a huge historical and cultural impact on the society is imperative to understanding the writing in this text. Even in the beginning of the story the author simply lists out the things they carried, they mean nothing to us. However, when he goes in depth about the soldiers and why they carry what they do, he gives us meaning behind it and brings us in on what he is trying to say about culture, his opinion, and ours. By reading through what is carried and understanding the styles used by the author, Tim O’Brien, the readers also come to understand a culture developed and altered by the war. Society was shaped around the cultural division over many issues stemming from the war in Vietnam, and by observing this cultural shift one can acknowledge just how much history and society affects our writing, as it did to the highlighted text, The Things They Carried.
