The Things They Carried mirrors this particular age by successfully depicting the true war experience of soldiers during the time
The Lives of Soldiers
Tim O'BrienTim O'Brien is not only the author of this book, but also a veteran of the war. Tim O'Brien, along with the rest of his platoon, was assigned to the "3rd Platoon, A Co., 5th Batt. 46th Inf., as an infantry foot soldier" (About Tim O'Brien). In this book, all the characters are very real, as seen in the dedication page of the book which states "This book is lovingly dedicated to the men of Alpha Company, and in particular to Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Henry Dobbins, and Kiowa" (O'Brien).His first person narration of the story develops the experience of life as a soldier through his own experiences. From first being "drafted to fight a war" (O'Brien 38) to "wading across the field to the river and then turning and wading back again" (O'Brien 155), O'Brien captures the true experience of a soldier in the Vietnam War.
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The Daily GrindO'Brien and his platoon went on missions "to search out and destroy the elaborate tunnel complexes" (O'Brien 9) many times. Interviews from the video show that those soldiers would "go on a search and destroy mission every single day" (Daily Life For A Soldier In The Vietnam War). Also illustrated in the story, when they weren't going on a search and destroy mission, they would spend most of their time "playing checkers every evening before dark" (O'Brien 30). Just as the soldiers in the story spent most of their down time playing checkers, in the interview, the soldiers say that they "played cards and played guitars" (Daily Life For A Soldier In The Vietnam War). In one instance, in the book, Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley were "playing catch with smoke grenades" (O'Brien 67) until Curt Lemon stepped on a "booby-trapped 105 round" (O'Brien 79) which killed him. The man in the interview also states that "people start to get a little bit lazy... somebody trips off a booby trap" (Daily Life For A Soldier In The Vietnam War).
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Young Trouble"The average age in our platoon, I'd guess, was nineteen or twenty" (O'Brien 35). The soldiers in the Vietnam war were mostly young adults fresh out of high school. Even in the interview, Vito was a "20 year old draftee from Philadelphia" (American Troops Smoking Pot in Vietnam). Not only were the soldiers very young, but also they had one specific hobby in common. Stated in the video, "Well over 50% of the soldiers in Vietnam use marijuana" (American Troops Smoking Pot in Vietnam). This fact is developed through the character of Ted Lavender who "carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity" (O'Brien 3). These soldiers were able to get a hold of so much marijuana because "there was no central Vietnamese drug enforcement agency and no government control over marijuana. A survey made in 1966 by the U.S. military command in the Saigon area showed there were 29 fixed outlets for the purchase of marijuana" (Brush 1).
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