Staff Picks
One Book, One Community 2018
- Emily Stoll
- Thursday, January 25, 2018
Collection
A timely read around Veteran's Day, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination and the redemptive power of storytelling. Critically acclaimed, it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Whether you grab a hard copy or an eBook, we encourage you to join your friends and neighbors as we come together during One Book, One Community for this shared reading experience.
Summary and Analysis of the Things They Carried. Based on the Book by Tim O'Brien
Published in 2017
So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of The Things They Carried tells you what you need to know-before or after you read Tim O'Brien's book. Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader. This Summary of The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien includes: Historical context, story-by-story summaries, character analysis, themes and symbols, important quotes and supporting material to enhance your understanding of the source work. About The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien: A New York Times Book of the Century and Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Things They Carried is a modern classic and an essential work of literature about the Vietnam War. Brilliantly blending fact and fiction, autobiography and imagination, Tim O'Brien draws on personal experience to tell the stories of a platoon of American soldiers sent to fight Vietnam. As they trek through jungles and across mountains, the young men of Alpha Company carry radios, assault rifles, C-rations, and good luck charms-as well as grief, love, terror, and the shame of cowardice. Most of all, they carry the dream of escape, not yet knowing that the burden of memory will haunt them long after the war is over. Taught in classrooms all over the world, The Things They Carried is a groundbreaking work of art that reveals the true nature of war and celebrates the healing power of storytelling. The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of fiction.
Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried
Published in 2011
A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling.
The Things They Carried
A Work of Fiction
Published in 1990
The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others, we hear them telling stories about themselves. With the creative verve of the greatest fiction and the intimacy of a searing autobiography, The Things They Carried is a testament to the men who risked their lives in America's most controversial war. It is also a mirror held up to the frailty of humanity. Ultimately The Things They Carried and its myriad protagonists call to order the courage, determination, and luck we all need to survive.
The Things They Carried
A Work of Fiction
Published in 2009
This work depicts the heroic young men of Alpha Company as they carry the emotional weight of their lives to war in Vietnam in a patchwork account of a modern journey into the heart of darkness. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have.
The Things They Carried
Published in 2017
This depicts the men of Alpha Company. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have.