In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses intense imagery to display profound thoughts resembling events that occurred throughout the Vietnam War. In America during the 60’s and early 70’s there was a feeling of gloom spread throughout the country as the frowned upon war ensued. As more and more young men got shipped off to the war, what went with them was their love for so many family and friends back home. In a peer review journal titled American Families and the Vietnam War, it talks about the U.S. government’s failure to chart data about family characteristics on the casualties that occurred in Vietnam. This article talks about how detrimental the war was on relationships between the young soldiers and their families, but it also weighs in on the PTSD from the separation in war and the tough resocialization after Vietnam. The author is almost condemning the Department of Defense by pulling out statistics such as “Of the 50,000 U.S. servicemen killed in action in Vietnam, 1961-70, 90 percent were 18-26”(E. James Lieberman, 710). Lieberman later focuses on the lack of family characteristics from the Vietnam War. This journal was informative because it gave charts and comparisons throughout it relating to other deadly wars. This piece is also eye-opening because most analyses on the Vietnam War, by military historians, rarely mention the theme of family and war.  To coincide with the theme of families during the Vietnamese War, the journal Socioeconomic Background and War Mortality During Vietnam’s Wars reflects on the large proportion of deaths to Vietnamese soldiers born from uneducated fathers compared to educated fathers. The journal sheds light to the other side of the battle and mentions in its intro “To understand the experiences of North Vietnamese soldiers and civilians during the American war” (M. Giovanna Merli, 1). Then, it goes into charts and statistical detail of a variety of different death age group categories. The author proves her theory by researching statistics proving the higher percentage of deaths of soldiers born from uneducated fathers for the Vietnamese. 

O’Brien does a great job of developing the characterization, through protagonist Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, by first appealing to the objects his men are carrying. Lieutenant Cross holds onto letters of quoted poetry from Martha a girl from his college in New Jersey. Cross fantasizes about this girl constantly while simultaneously knowing that she will never love him.  At a later point in the story while the squad was on a mission blowing up tunnels one of Cross’s men was shot. He carried marijuana and tranquilizers to stay calm. In the moment of his death, Cross imagined a horrifying scene of tunnels crashing down on him and Martha. After the dead soldier is evacuated, the squad goes to the village and burns everything. Long story short, in the closing pages’ Cross burns Martha’s letters and photographs the day after his soldier died. This finally detaches himself from his obsessive fantasies. The story does a fantastic job highlighting the detrimental situation the young soldiers were exposed too. O’Brien dabbles with the imbalance of love and war. He resembled how the soldiers must have felt at war. The article American Families and the Vietnam War sheds light on the great number of deaths of soldiers with families that were caused by this wicked war. Both journals acknowledge the young age of the soldiers on both sides, which is also a pivotal factor for the story because of Cross’s inexperience to fantasy vs. reality in war. Lieutenant Cross’s longing for his fanaticized love, leads him into believing Lavender’s death was his fault. This same longing is the same feeling of a longing for the love of a family. The Socioeconomics Background and War Mortality During Vietnam’s Wars showed the alarming statistical numbers of civilian deaths and casualties caused from this war. The scene in The Things They Carried where the squad burns down the village shows how the sum of the civilian deaths got so outrageous. The articles display statistics and analysis proving the emotional environment of the war was too much for the young soldiers as shown throughout the story. 
