Topics for Essay #1

1. O’Brien himself has said:

War stories aren't always about war, per se. They aren't about bombs and bullets and military maneuvers. They aren't about tactics, they aren't about foxholes and canteens. War stories, like any good story, is finally about the human heart. About the choices we make, or fail to make. The forfeitures in our lives.

Discuss the internal conflicts of at least three of the characters in the first two stories in The Things They Carried, how they resolve those conflicts and at what cost.

2. Jimmy Cross is the obvious protagonist of both "The Things They Carried" as well as "Love." In what way does his character develop and change from the moment the reader first encounters him to the end of the second story? Include in your discussion his loss of innocence, his alienation, and finally, how his encounter with Martha contributes to his development.

3. How does the role of the narrator change in the course of storytelling? Why does he choose to use third person in the first story and first person in the second? What seems to be the narrator's purpose in the first story? Why does he choose to insert himself in the second story? Explore and explain this deliberate choice the author makes.

4. For any literary work to last beyond a few years, it must have a common quality—or theme. It must present characters who are representative of all people in situations that most people face, whether those situations are literal or figurative. Theme is deeper than the events that make up plot; the elements of fiction combine to produce theme. Characters, irony, symbolism –taken together, these become the vehicles of theme; each element is relevant to the whole. The two initial stories of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried contain themes we have come to think of as “universal.” Choose ONE of those themes and by using specific examples from both the first and second story, analyze what the author is saying about human nature or life.