The Things They Carried and Three-Day Road by Tim O´brien

The things They carried is a collection of short stories written by Tim O'Brien. This is a story describing a group of soldiers and the things they carried in their bag packs and hearts. The soldiers were forced to carry vital items, which they could need for survival during the war. The items they carried from home gave them comfort during the difficult times of their lives. O’Brien uses what the soldiers carried to war to describe them. This novel comprises of a group of interwoven stories, which describe the soldiers’ experiences during the Vietnam War. On the other hand, Three Day Road is a novel by Joseph Boyden. This novel about two soldiers Xavier Bird and Elijah Whiskey jack fought during the First World War Xavier comes home wounded after the war while he is addicted to Morphine, a drug that helps him forget everything about the war and the pain in his leg. The Things They Carried and Three Day Road, are war books where we are introduced to the lives of the soldiers, however, the soldiers treated war differently.

In the Things They Carried, war is depicted as impersonal and at the same time individualized. The soldiers in the story each carried items they thought would be of help to them during the time of the war. On the other hand, through the items they carried, each soldier was able to contribute something different through their own habits, however, in the grand scheme, their individualism meant nothing.

In the Things They Carried, O’Brien explores the emotional and psychological aspect of the war through his characters. The soldiers were emotionally tortured by the war they were going to take part in and their emotional baggage they carried outweighed their physical agony. They carried cigarettes, food, gear, ca...

... middle of paper ...

...ver feared death. Nonetheless, the soldier in Three Day Road used a drug called Morphine to forget the horrors of the war. Lastly, the soldiers in both books were affected in one way or another by the war.

Works Cited

O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dan Gioa. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2009. (595-607). Print.

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: a work of fiction. New York: Houghton, 1990. Print.

Boyden, Joseph. Three Day Road. Canada: Penguin Books, 2006. Print.

Neilson, Jim. Warring Fictions: American Literary Culture and the Vietnam War Narrative. Jackson: Mississippi UP, 1998. Print.

Johnson, Christine. Book Review: Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. Chalkthesun.org, Dec 29 2011. Web. Mar. 31. 2014. Chalkthesun.org/2011/12/29/book-review-three-day-road-by-joseph-boyden/