By:
Tim O'Brien
Grade Level:
Tim O’Brien’s powerful novel The Things They Carried (1990) describes the experiences of a group of American soldiers during the Vietnam War, and how it affects their lives. Over the course of the novel, the reader is exposed to events before, during, and after the war and how it has changed them. It is a description of the Vietnam War, and war in general that is easy for the average reader to connect to. Issues of race and religion are discussed directly or alluded to by the author, and he describes the death of numerous individuals in some detail.