Miriam Herman

Ms. Feldman
English 11 & 12
August 14, 2016

This summer I chose to read The Things They Carried by Tim O Brien. What I learned
was that the past is important for avoiding repeating past mistakes in the future.

Courage was an important subject thought the book. Over the course of the book the
authors notion of courage changes as each characters perspectives and experiences
change. OBrien describes courage as a fickle thing that cannot be grabbed as needed but
builds up over time. Courage is like an inheritance that grows while brushing away doubt
and clearing the way towards the future.

Tim O Brien was drafted into the Vietnam War, while having a scholarship to Harvard.
He felt that, I was too good for this war (Pg.39). He hated everything he knew of the
war and he also believed that there was a mess up with his draft papers because
everything was unlike him. He never told his parents this story but he almost made it to
the border of Canada to escape being drafted into the Vietnam War, but when he got to
the lake at the border he turned around. The constant pressure of society made him turn
around halfway and return home - a coward ready for war.

Once in Vietnam Tim O Brien tells the stories of people within his division who had
experienced so much loss and grief. He describes the after effect of killing a man and
realizing that he probably had family waiting back home for him. He later talks with his
friend Kiowa on how to release some of the shock and guilt. All Kiowa says is Talk
(pg.124) for that is the best way to cope. He tells of how his friend Kiowa died in field
complete accident and he had not deserved such a death.

He later returns to Vietnam with his daughter and reminisce of the moments he had
while at war and his friend that he had lost during their stay here. He returns to where his
friend died and returns the shoes that were all that remain of him, and let them sink into
the mud to where his body probably laid.

These effects of war are why I believe that every person should learn about the past
because the knowledge you gain and learn from that will change you are entire view on
the wars that have happened before you.