The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, is a collection of short stories, each of which were written in the form of stream of consciousness writing. This means that the narrator follows his train of thought, using one idea to fuel another, bouncing from one thought to another. For example, in the first story of the book, "The Things They Carried," the topic of discussion goes from the literal objects the soldiers carry, such as the letters Lieutenant Cross carries, to the emotional baggage they carry, "grief, terror, love, longing...shameful memories" (21). The form provides the author free reign to take the story essentially anywhere, giving him the ability to more easily achieve his purpose, to tell the stories of the soldiers in the Vietnam War, especially his own. This purpose also leads to O'Brien's use of another form, verisimilitude, which blends the line between fact and fiction. His use of verisimilitude allows the audience to experience the feelings and reality of his own tour in the Vietnam War. He immerses the audience in environments which immediately capture and hold their attention. "His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star shaped hole" (124); this graphic introductory sentence to the story "The Man I Killed" is a fine example of O'Brien's ability to grasp the reader's attention. We find out later in the book that O'Brien never killed a man, but that he was there when it happened. However, by using verisimilitude he is able to communicate the emotion of having the responsibility for having killed a man, an emotion common to almost all soldiers in Vietnam. The author is aware of the verisimilitude in the stories, he even states in the story "Good Form" that his stories are not all true and that he uses the "story-truth" to help the reader "feel what I felt" (179). Through his use of verisimilitude O'Brien does in fact allow the reader to feel what he felt and succeeds in telling his personal story as well as the stories of countless others.