The Things They Carried

Published in 1990, The Things They Carried is a collection of interrelated short stories about the Vietnam War written by American author Tim O’Brien. The historical fiction collection is considered essential literature about the Vietnam War and is often used to teach fiction writing techniques. An authorial persona, Tim O’Brien, narrates the stories in the first-person about his experiences during the war. The collection explores themes of Survivor’s Guilt, Talking as a Way of Processing Trauma, and Factual and Emotional Truth.

The collection was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a New York Times Book of the Century. It was later featured in a PBS series about the Vietnam War narrated by Ken Burns. O’Brien won the National Book Award in 1979 for his novel Going After Cacciato. Other works by O’Brien include If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home and In the Lake of the Woods.

Content Warning: This guide contains discussions of war, graphic violence, death by suicide, cruelty to animals, drug use, and racism, which appear in the source text.