Nick Soukup

Block F
April 14, 2017

The Things They Carried

The novel, The Things They Carried, by Tim OBrien, is a collection of

linked short stories based on American soldiers during the Vietnam War.

Throughout these stories, many narrative elements are used, including

character, plot and setting. Character is a literary device that is used to

highlight and explain the details about a character in a story. Another literary

device, plot, is used to describe the events that make up a story or the main

part of a story. Similarly, to plot, setting is the time and place in which the

story occurs. OBrien uses a mixture of plot, setting, and character to

effectively explain the hardships of the war.

OBrien combines character and setting in the chapter Night Life to

show how much the setting of a story can change a character. In this

chapter, a medic names Rat Kiley is driven insane after having to spend

weeks in the jungles of Vietnam, only being able to move at night. OBrien

effectively uses the setting of the woods at night to show how Kiley changed

as a person. The bugs and woodland creatures drove Kiley mad. For

example, He couldn't stop talking. Weird talk, too. Talking about bugs, for

instance: how the worst thing in Nam was the goddamn bugs. Big giant killer

bugs, he'd say, mutant bugs, bugs with fucked-up DNA, bugs that were

chemically altered by napalm and defoliants and tear gas and DDT (OBrien,
1990, p. 220). This quote explains how crazy Kiley became due to the

insects. OBrien successfully shows how much ones surroundings can affect

their state of mind and their character.

OBrien also combines plot and setting in the chapter Field Trip to

explain the effect a plot can have on the setting. When OBrien returns to the

field where his good friend Kiowa died, he described the setting as dry,

different from before, yet still familiar. Kiowas death, an important part of

the plot, set a sad, dreary mood during their previous visit to the field,

effectively changing the setting. When OBrien visited the field directly after

Kiowas death, it was wet and muddy. Now, the field is dry and barren.

OBrien explains: The field was still there, though not as I remembered it.

Much smaller, I thought, and not nearly so menacing, and in the bright

sunlight it was hard to picture what had happened on this ground some

twenty years ago. Except for a few marshy spots along the river, everything

was bone dry (OBrien, 1990, p. 181). OBrien was able to present different

settings for the divergent emotions within the plot.

Lastly, OBrien combines character and plot in the chapter Field Trip in

order to show how a major event in the plot can change a character. He

explains how Kiowas death changed him, showing how the plot had a major

effect on his character. He was devastated after Kiowa passed away, as he

explains in this chapter: I looked down into the field. Well, I finally

managed. There it is. My voice surprised me. It had a rough, chalky sound,
full of things I did not know were there. I wanted to tell Kiowa that he'd been

a great friend, the very best, but all I could do was slap hands with the

water (OBrien, 1990, p. 186-187). His grief over his lost friend changed his

character. The memory of the field at Kiowas death versus how the field is

now is drastically different.

Narrative elements are what makes up a story. They are well-

used throughout this novel. Within these chapters, OBrien effectively

combines plot, character, and setting to create a work of art. He shows

how events in a plot can have a major effect on the setting and

character, and vice versa. Literary devices such as these are blended

to form a product that effectively describes the adversity of the

Vietnam War.