Uncertainty

"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien is written in a very fragmented fashion, with many short stories pieced together to form an overall story arch. O'Brien wrote his novel like this very deliberately, because it reflects one of the central themes of his book: the uncertainty of war. Numerous times throughout the novel, O'Brien comments on how nothing is as it appears in war. He states that everything that is true is a lie, and that every lie is the truth; essentially, nothing is as it seems. I believe he emphasizes this point so heavily for two reasons, the first of which is in a more literal sense. When fighting for one's life, things become a blur, and it becomes very hard to keep track of everything going on around oneself. Because of this it's borderline impossible to know for certain what really happened out on the battlefield, as soldiers in many cases don't actually have eyes on the events that are unfolding or look away at the last second, like in the case of Kurt Lemon's death. The second reason why O'Brien hammers home the uncertainty point is to explain how pointless fighting a war can be. Constantly humping from one place to another in an endless march for years on end is difficult, but seeing no real signs of progress for all the hard work is unbearable. O'Brien wants to make sure his readers know that the soldiers could die at any moment in gruesome fashion for a cause they don't believe in. Arguably the most fearsome aspect of both war and life in general, the struggle against uncertainty is one of O'Brien's primary plot points throughout the book for good reason.