The Horrors of War

In "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien, the horrors of war are discussed at great length. O'Brien (the protagonist) repeatedly tells horrific stories of his time in Vietnam, many of which he still hasn't gotten over, as evidenced by the fact that he attempts to distance himself from his war memories in the first chapter. Instead of using a first person point of view like he does throughout the rest of his novel, O'Brien uses third person to both make the reader feel more in-touch with how horrendous his experiences were, while at the same time attempting to evade any feelings of guilt by refusing to even comment on said experiences. A great example of this is in the chapter about the man that O'Brien supposedly killed. O'Brien (the narrator) repeatedly gives the reader a more and more detailed description of the dead man's appearance and fabricated past, while O'Brien (the protagonist) doesn't have any of his thoughts on the matter in the chapter. This technique of not using dialogue from the protagonist when he's in a traumatic situation does a great job in conveying how much shock and the amount of guilt O'Brien is feeling. While his fellow soldiers use gallows humor in an attempt to lighten the mood and desensitize the heinous acts they are forced to commit, O'Brien has no such coping method and deals with immense amounts of self-guilt as a result.

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