Tone

According to Gillespie, Pipolo, and Fonseca’s Literature Across Cultures, the definition of tone is the manner, mood, or attitude that the writer has for the characters, situations, and the readers themselves. The tone of "The Things They Carried" varies widely throughout the story. It, at one point or another, was happy, sad, emotional, devastating, and careless. Because of the change in tone, you get the feeling of how much the soldiers had to struggle with so many things throughout the war.

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War, like any war, had many events that took place over a period of time. I thought that this would be an easier way for you, my readers, do get an understanding of what happened and when it happened. There are also many reasons behind what was happening at certain times of the war, . This may be a little harder to understand because it was so long ago and things have changed in the way we view different aspects of War itself.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/timeline/index.html

Setting

The setting of a short story is the place and time where a certain event happened. According to Gillespie, Pipolo, and Fonseca’s Literature Across Cultures, the definition of the literary term "setting is the physical environment that is an element of literary physical environment that is an element of literary work, which can create the atmosphere and mood and is closely related to the action and them of the work" (Gillespie). The setting of "The Things They Carried" is fairly obvious, it is set in Vietnam. Although, at many times in the story, the author makes reference to that of foxholes and different locations out in the field that the soldiers were in many time during the war. The Vietnam War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975 when Saigon fell (Roush). The United States entered the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam (Roush).

Roush, Gary. "Statistics about the Vietnam War." History.com. History Channel. 2 June 2008. Web. 6 May 2010.

Theme of "The Things They Carried"

According to Gillespie, Pipoo, and Fonseca's Literature Across Cultures, the theme of a short story is the central idea of the tory and it reinforces the general meaning of the story. The subject of "The Things They Carried" are the soldiers that fought in the Vietnam war and the objects that they carried with them while fighting the war.

Why Read "The Things They Carried" By Tim O'Brien

There are many reasons to read "The Things They Carried" By Tom O'Brien.
This is a story about a troop that is fighting in the Vietnam War and the things that they carry with them while fighting in the war.
This story gives many ideas about the stress that was put on soldiers while fighting in the war. I found this short story to be inspiring in a few different ways. It gives individuals the feeling that the freedom we get in the US is very under appreciated. We are able to love others and see our family as much as we want. When soldiers were out at war, they could only communicate via paper letter. The other inspiration was that of how one could care for another when just meeting them during the war. Many people did lose their lives due to the war, and for the families back home to find out that they had lost someone who they cared for greatly was extremely hard because they never got to say good bye and in some cases they didn't know how they had died for a long time.