The Things They Carried (1990) is a collection of linked short stories by American novelist Tim O'Brien, about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War. His third book about the war is based upon his experiences as a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division.

O'Brien generally refrains from political debate and discourse regarding the Vietnam War. He was dismayed that people in his home town seemed to have so little understanding of the war and its world. It was in part a response to what he considered ignorance that he wrote The Things They Carried. It was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1990.

Many of the characters are semi-autobiographical, sharing similarities with figures from his memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home. In The Things They Carried, O'Brien plays with the genre of metafiction; he writes using verisimilitude. His use of real place names and inclusion of himself as the protagonist blurs fiction and non-fiction. As part of this effect, O'Brien dedicates The Things They Carried to the fictional men of the "Alpha Company," giving it “the form of a war memoir,” states O’Brien.

Plot summaries

;"The Things They Carried":

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the leader of a platoon of soldiers in Vietnam, carries physical reminders of Martha, the object of his unrequited love. Thoughts of Martha often distract Lieutenant Cross from his team's objectives. A death in the squad under his supervision causes Cross to reconsider his priorities; as he was heartbroken, he burns and throws away all reminders of Martha in order to focus on the mission and avoid distractions.

;"Love":

Cross and O'Brien reminisce about the war and about Martha. O'Brien asks if he can write a story about Cross, expressing his memories and hopes for the future; Cross agrees, thinking that perhaps Martha will read it and come find him. O’Brien utilizes a style of writing that combines both fiction and nonfiction together into one piece. When asked to describe how he blurs this line between the two genres, O’Brien says "I set out to write a book with the feel of utter and absolute reality, a work of fiction that would read like nonfiction and adhere to the conventions of a memoir: dedicating the book to the characters, using my name, drawing on my own life. This was a technical challenge. My goal was to compose a fiction with the texture, sound and authentic-seeming weight of nonfiction."

Morality

O’Brien also shows the constant struggle of morality throughout the story during the Vietnam War. A paper from Brigham Young University highlights the conflict that soldiers face when transitioning from civilian life to soldier life in relation to morality. It states, “As demonstrated through the soldiers’ experiences with pleasure, the soldiers’ moral code must change from that of their civilian lives in order for them to find moral justification in the everyday violence war requires.” The paper goes on to acknowledge that, “In O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the concept of morality is complicated by the treatment of violence and a connection between violence and pleasure; resultantly, morality must be defined on a spectrum rather than a binary scale.”

Publication

Before the book's publication in 1990, five of the stories: "The Things They Carried," "How to Tell a True War Story," "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," "The Ghost Soldiers," and "The Lives of the Dead" were published in Esquire.

"Speaking of Courage" was originally published (in heavily modified form) as a chapter of O'Brien's earlier novel Going After Cacciato.

"The Things They Carried" was also included in the 1987 volume of The Best American Short Stories, edited by Ann Beattie and the second edition of Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama by Robert DiYanni.

Reception

The Things They Carried has received critical acclaim and has been established as one of the preeminent pieces of Vietnam War literature. It has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2010. It has received multiple awards such as France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger Award and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, as well as being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award.

O'Brien has expressed surprise at how the book has become a staple in middle schools and high schools, stating that he "certainly hadn't imagined fourteen year-old kids and eighteen year-olds and those even in their early twenties reading the book and bringing such fervor to it, which comes from their own lives, really. The book is applied to a bad childhood or a broken home, and these are the things they're carrying. And in a way, it's extremely flattering, and other times, it can be depressing."

In 2014, the book was included in Amazon.com's list of 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime and credited as the inspiration for a National Veterans Art Museum exhibit.

It was included in the Library of Congress 2016 exhibit "America Reads" of the public’s choice of 65 of "the most influential books written and read in America and their impact on our lives".

Adaptations

Music

The song Pantyhose by band TV Girl describes the plot of the chapter Stockings.

Film

The story "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" was made into a film in 1998 titled A Soldier's Sweetheart, starring Kiefer Sutherland.

A film adaptation of the book, directed by Rupert Sanders and starring Tom Hardy, is currently in pre-production. Scott B. Smith is adapting the script.

Theatre

The legal rights to adapt the book into a play were awarded to James R. Stowell. The book was adapted into a play and it premiered at The History Theatre in Saint Paul, Minnesota, March 14, 2014. A second production was performed at The Lied Center, Lincoln Nebraska November 5, 2015. The stories "The Things They Carried", "On the Rainy River", "How to Tell a True War Story", "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong", "The Man I Killed", and "Lives of the Dead" were adapted for the theatre in March 2011 by the Eastern Washington University Theatre Department as part of the universities' Get Lit! Literary Festival in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Arts The Big Read 2011, of which The Things They Carried was the featured novel. The same department remounted the production in December 2011 for inclusion as a Participating Entry in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. The production was selected as an alternate for KCACTF Region VII, as well as receiving other KCACTF honors for the production's director, actors, and production staff.

Games

Carry. A game about war. is a 2006 tabletop role-playing game designed by Nathan D. Paoletta. Its author describes it as "heavily inspired by the films Platoon and Full Metal Jacket and the novel The Things They Carried".

References

  • An Index to The Things They Carried