The Soldier Within

Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is not so much of a novel about the Vietnam War as it is a story about the soldiers and their experiences and emotions that are brought about from the war. O'Brien makes several statements about war through these dynamic characters. He shows the violent nature of soldiers under the pressures of war, he makes an effective antiwar statement, and he comments on the reversal of a social deviation …

…be morally warped by the war is an effective thought in O'Brien's discouragement of war. The view in the novel is common today among Americans since the advent of long-distance warfare and bright, colorful explosions; however, in the guerrilla warfare of Vietnam, the grudging participants loathed the idea. Tim O'Brien very effectively portrays their hatred and the severe negative effects the war had on American soldiers in his excellent, convincing novel The Things They Carried.