The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien - 1039 Words

â€Å"My life is storytelling. I believe in stories, in their incredible power to keep people alive, to keep the living alive, and the dead.† Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, was filled with embellished stories and memories of war veterans. O’Brien’s reasoning for writing that particular book was because he believed that while a memory can die with a person, written words are forever set in stone. In his book, War was every one of the soldier’s enemy; It did not matter which side they fought on. War took men physically and mentally. O’Brien displayed how war stories were based on a certain soldier’s experiences, morals, and personality; Readers never truly knew fact from fiction. O’Brien’s intended audience were readers who were†¦show more content†¦He chose war and went home. â€Å"I feared war, yes, but I also feared exile†(O’Brien 42). O’Brien considered himself a cowar d because he chose war, but above all, he feared that his family would dishonor him. He was embarrassed not to go to war and ended up putting others’ morals before his own. In addition to the theme of morality found in â€Å"Rainy River†, it is also noticeable in the chapter â€Å"Church†. During the war, O’Brien’s unit had just come across a pagoda, a buddhist temple, and a pair of monks who lived there. The monks invited them to set up camp and helped the soldiers with water, cleaning guns, and more. Henry Dobbins chatted with Kiowa about joining the monks when the war was over, because he believed in the friendliness of religion by being amiable and helping others. Both exchanged words about what religion meant to them and Kiowa stated that he had always been religious and enjoyed the comfort and silence of being inside a church. â€Å"Setting up here,† he says, â€Å"It’s wrong. I don’t care what, it’s still a church†(O’Brien 116). Kiowa did not believe in setting up the unit’s base operations inside of a holy place. Growing up religious, Kiowa’s morals impacted his decisions and opinions made in war. Similar to the theme of morality, O’Brien discusses storytelling and memory in the chapter â€Å"Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.† Rat Kiley told the story of a man named Mark Foisse who flew his girl, Mary Anne, to visit him in Vietnam. The