Every book has at least one theme. Without a theme, the book is pointless. A common theme in the book the Things They Carried is that war is awful. It destroys friendship, sanity and life. This theme is present throughout the entire book and is visited frequently by Tim O'Brien.
Of all the awful things in war, the loss of life is the important and is most commented on by O'Brien. The most prevalent instances of loss of life is the death of Curt Lemons and of the VC soldier. The killing of the VC soldier greatly affected O'Brien. He wrote what happened quite bluntly, saying, "He was a short, slender, young man of about twenty. [...] and as he passed me on the trail I threw a grenade that exploded at his feet and killed him." (O'Brien 125) He said the man wasn't really a threat but he killed him anyways because it was war. Although the previous example was a rather subtle suggestion of O'Brien's dislike for war, he's not always so gentle. In fact he is sometimes very open. "War is hell [...] war is nasty [...] war is drudgery [...] war makes you dead." (O'Brien 76) This is the most extreme example of the theme war is awful and clearly states O'Brien's thoughts on the subject. |