I have always loved it when people are able to convey their feelings and thoughts into writing, and produce works of arts. I love it when I can read someones' novel, and I can feel like Im in their mind. When I can hear what they heard. Smell what they smelt. And see what they have seen. It's challenging for a writer to do that. So when an author
can do that. I'ts enticing, and enthralling and everything else in between. It makes you hungry for more of their works. Whenever I finish reading a novel in which the author made me feel what he/ she had felt. I feel a connection. I cry when they cried. I laugh when they laughed. I feel as though I was there with them throughout their journey.
Tim O'Brien did that. In The Things They Carried, O'Brien took me from sitting in my bedroom to the swmapy river of Song Tra Bong, to the village of My Khe. Though I will never be able to experience how it was like to be a soldier during the Vietnam War, I can imagine it. This novel, with its vivid description of the Alpha Company's journey, allowed me to imagine how it was to really be a soldier during the Vietnam War, better than any textbook could. Because this novel, is a persons' memories. A person. Someone with feelings, and friends, and a family. It's real. Dates dont matter, neither do cities and leaders, the only thing that does matter, is staying alive. From reading this novel (which is actually a collecting of short stories), I now have a greater appreciaition for the soldiers out there. Now, whenever someone mentions war. I dont only think about machine guns, tanks, nuclear bombs, and soldiers marching. I think about the things they carried...
"The things they carried were largely determ,ined by necessity... What they carried was partly a function of rank, partly of field speciatly... They carried whatever presenting itself, or whatever seemed appropriate as a means of killing or staying alive... What they carried varied by mission... The things they carried were determined to some extent by superstition... For the most part they carried themselves with poise, a kind of dignity... They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die..." - Tim O'Brien
I really enjoyed this novel, and I especially enjoyed how O'Brien started it off by introducing all the characters, and the things they carried. Whether it was a picture of an old girlfriend, or pantyhouse, or a New Testament Bible, or even a lucky pebble. O'Brien was able to convey a novel so surreal, that i believed every word of it. It's amazing. Tim O'Brien is amazing, which is why he's now one of my favorite writers. I recommend this novel to everyone out there!