The Things They Carried has become revered as an all-time American Classic. Tim O’Brien illustrates perfectly the power of storytelling and how the imaginary can effectively evoke the feeling of reality. While being almost entirely fabricated The Things They Carried is renown as one of the best portrayals of war-time action and emotions. It shows how fictional stories can sometimes be the best portrayal of the actual truth. The truly amazing feat of The Things They Carried comes from Tim O'Brien's main purpose for creating this novel. Having previous experience and success in war-time stories and wanting to show just how much power storytelling can have. Tim O’Brien realized that the most meaningful and timeless piece could be achieved through fiction. As a result O’Brien was able to create a piece that heavily targeted pathos and interest of the reader through mainly diction and allusions. While never stating the actions in the book are not his own O’Brien was long thought to have based this book after his own experiences despite that being untrue. The assumption by people that the book was true led many to be inspired and personally connect with such a piece. That is why in many curriculums The Things They Carried is not revealed to be fictitious until the end. The power of storytelling in O’Brien’s novel is so powerful that it created an awe-inspiring story that invigorates the human spirit revelation of its falsity creates a betrayal from lies and leads to a new interpretation of the text like a new piece of evidence to an unsolved case. 

In The Things They Carried written by the author, Tim O'Brien, a dichotomy is presented between what the author describes as the story-truth and the happening-truth that puzzles and perplexes the reader on whether the fictional piece presented ever occurred; to ponder what universal human truths may be derived from the material whether it be fake or factual. Tim O’Brien’s contrasts between the facts of the Vietnam War and the make-believe of this war expose a paradox that accentuates reality: ‘Story-truth’ illuminates and nails for the reader the Vietnam experience’s happening-truth. These contrasts made by O’Brien employ the reader to discover the ideologies and truths that O’Brien himself experienced and apply the to their own lives to discover what is truthful for them. 

When it comes to combat, O’Brien was no stranger serving almost a year in combat as part of the 5th Battalion in the 46th Infantry ultimately being medically discharged on an injury caused from grenade shrapnel. While serving in combat in an area merely exact to that of the book the only relevant overlap to that of the novel comes from O’Brien being station in My Lai months after the massacre along with sharing the same name as the main character. Most of the time spent by O’Brien in Vietnam was far away from combat even serving as an editor to a military journal for a time. As stated before it has been found that this novel is entirely made from storytelling. The stories that O'Brien wrote about his war experience are not one hundred percent factual or a hundred percent fake; they are only set in place to provide the parameters on what he felt was adequate to portray what occurred and what he encountered.  In an interview with NPR it was even found that the so-called company of men the book is dedicated to are also made up (Fresh Air).

O’Brien’s goal for The Things They Carried was to not make a war book but rather uproot the dogmas associated with storytelling and create a “bridge between the experiences of all of you, (and) the things you carry in your lives”. His goal was to focus on the things that we all carry. Whether it be physically, mentally, or emotionally. Yet in the process of doing so he created one of the best pieces of combat literature to date. The Things They Carried is even praised for its accuracy and validity. He has even received numerous letters from veterans thanking him for finally telling their story (Brown Library). 

The reason this novel is so great is not its historical accuracy; many novels share that. What O’Brien achieves that no one else can is correctly targeting pathos. By showing the emotional weight soldiers’ also carry the reader is brought into the story and is more influenced by events in the novel. The Things They Carried can be compared to the movie “Rocky” an awe-inspiring story that captivates the minds of viewers. Have a new viewer watch it and they will be captivated. Yet tell them the story is fictitious anytime during the showing and then the final scenes and plot don’t carry as much meaning as they once did. That is why it is understandable the book is so close to a true war story. Even going as far as to naming the main character O’Brien as well. It explains the meticulous detail in listing things they carried in the excerpt from “The Carolina Reader”.

The Things They Carried surpasses all previous attempts of O’Brien to convey the story of war while completely striving for a different goal. The reason this is achieved is by the way the novel is created. Through storytelling O’Brien is able to achieve an effect different from that of combat logs. He can evoke actual pathos and meaning. O’Brien later writes in this novel that “there are story truths and happening truths”. The difference between the two being factual and fiction. At a lecture at Brown O’Brien informs students how fictional stories can more effectively convey a soldier’s story and undercover the true meaning. He states fiction “(is)It’s for getting at the truth when truth isn’t sufficient” (Brown Library)

A line from the excerpt reads “Almost everyone humped photographs” effectively with the other context shows how all soldiers hope for a future back home whether it be love, religion, or ambition. An additional excerpt “Their calculations were biological...not caring, kicking over jars of rice, frisking children and old men, blowing tunnels, sometimes setting fires and sometimes not, then forming up and moving on to the next village” shows the meaningless actions of war of how they men acted on an instinctive animal nature. The power of storytelling is so effective that in just talking about what soldiers carry and how they march O’Brien can allude to their future ambitions, emotional fatigue that they must bear every day, and even talk about the meaningless loss of life that ensues in war.

 O'Brien and his stories serve not as a documentation but as a remembrance and memory of everything emotional and moral challenging that occurred amidst the uncertainty, brutality, and fury of war. His method of making one believe is reflective of what is said in this excerpt from How to Tell a True War Story, “It comes down to the gut instinct. A true war story, if truly told, makes the gut believe”. The belief from the is evident in the story of the baby water buffalo after the death of Curt Lemon. This scene is so horrid and gruesome, Rat Kiley is so emotionally detached, that it makes the readers truly believe this event really occurred through the sick pit it leaves in one’s stomach (Fresh Air)

The essence of The Things They Carried is that it is the best non-fiction fictitious book about the struggle of war to date. Knowing its fictitious nature shows just how ingenious Tim O’Brien was in the novel’s creation. O’Brien evoked sympathy in his readers while ridding of bias against its truthfulness. To solely engage the reader with the text without outside bias and have the ability to then manipulate that story in anyway allowed O’Brien to evoke so many themes in just one novel and summarize war in such a great plot. 
