Cultural Analysis of The Things They Carried - Tim O’Brien As a soldier, the equipment you carry into any conflict has two purposes. One purpose is to kill the enemy, the other purpose is to save your life. Any extra items, such as personal items or memories, are taken along or left behind to save your sanity. I have no doubt that was the focal point of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They …showed first 75 words of 1600 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1600 total…what these soldiers went through and what they felt. O’Brien tells the story with a very descriptive narrative about the weight soldiers carry into conflict. In the end he shows, truly, how the weight they carried either helped them or hindered them. Works Cited Charters, Ann, and Samuel Charters, eds. Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Boston: Bedford, 1997. O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Charters and Charters 518-531