THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

-Roughly A result/extension of the Cold War -America feared communism and was willing to do whatever it took to prevent its spread -JFK started it, LBJ made it worse, Nixon called it quits. THE WAR -Infamously known as the war that America lost, and resulted in a loss of trust in the American government and military -Cost thousands of American lives, millions of lives total, and millions more were injured

-Born Served in Vietnam First published in Has written nine books -More concerned with the telling of a story and letting truth emerge to the reader than explicitly making political commentary. TIM O’BRIEN

-Technically more of a “frame narrative” than a novel, since it contains several connected stories, many of which were previously published in magazines. THE BOOK -Narrated by “Tim O’Brien,” who is sort of the author and sort of a fictional character. -Depicts events before, during, and after the Vietnam War. -Is not intentionally an anti-war novel but an attempt to process the experience.

-Avoids glorifying war and avoids protesting it, but instead focuses on the people involved and how they coped with the war in their own ways. THE BOOK -There are several characters, almost all fellow male soldiers, that the book introduces at the beginning. -Some chapters are heavy with metafiction, which is essentially a story that is aware of itself, of being a story.

-O’Brien’s narratives blend actual facts, people, and events with fictional ones in order to tell a “true” story. -This technique is called... VERISIMILLITUDE...which basically means “truthlikeness.” -The point is not to know exactly what happened during O’Brien’s experience, but to reveal truths within the experience.

-Tension between fact and fiction -Ways that humans process traumatic experiences like war -Compare America’s Vietnam War era with its current War on Terror era IMPORTANT STUFF -The value of storytelling in our lives and it unique ability to heal and help us understand the world around us -Themes revolve around tragedy, beauty, violence, loyalty, courage, regret, and purpose