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[Possible Edits to The Things They Carried]

Genre

There are a couple major themes that are exhibited throughout the story. First, O’Brien utilizes a style of writing that combines both fiction and nonfiction together into one piece. When asked to describe how he blurs this line between the two genres, O’Brien says "I set out to write a book with the feel of utter and absolute reality, a work of fiction that would read like nonfiction and adhere to the conventions of a memoir: dedicating the book to the characters, using my name, drawing on my own life. This was a technical challenge. My goal was to compose a fiction with the texture, sound and authentic-seeming weight of nonfiction."[2]

Truth vs Reality

Another theme that is highlighted in the short story "Good Form," is when the narrator makes a distinction between "story truth" and "happening truth." O’Brien talks about truth and reality in relation to the story by describing, "I can say that the book’s form is intimately connected to how I, as a human being, tend to view the world unfolding itself around me. It’s sometimes difficult to separate external 'reality' from the internal processing of that reality."[2] O'Brien's fluid and elliptical negotiation of truth in this context finds echoes in works labeled as 'non-fiction novels'.

Imagination/Comedy

Another important theme O'Brien highlights is the emphasis on imagination and pretending. He says that this theme, "That’s an important part of my work. I’m a believer in the power of the imagination in ordinary human lives, and it’s much more important that we often credit."[2] O'Brien goes on to say, "And that is, I think, key to why I’m a fiction writer. If that element were not present, I’d be doing nonfiction. Or I wouldn’t be a writer at all."[2] Tim O'Brien also alludes to the difficulty in using dark comedy as a theme by say, "My guess is that I’ll be remembered, if I’m remembered at all, for my so-called tragedies: The Things They Carried, Going After Cacciato, If I Die in a Combat Zone and In the Lake of the Woods. Personally, I consider Tomcat in Love, if not my best book, certainly up there among the best. Yet I realize the most “literary” folks will disagree. In the end, it’s a matter of taste, I suppose. My sense of humor, which tends toward the outrageous, is plainly not for everyone."[2]

Morality

O’Brien also shows the constant struggle of morality throughout the story during the Vietnam War. A paper from Brigham Young University highlights the conflict that soldiers face when transitioning from civilian life to soldier life in relation to morality. It states, “As demonstrated through the soldiers’ experiences with pleasure, the soldiers’ moral code must change from that of their civilian lives in order for them to find moral justification in the everyday violence war requires.” The paper goes on to acknowledge that, “In O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the concept of morality is complicated by the treatment of violence and a connection between violence and pleasure; resultantly, morality must be defined on a spectrum rather than a binary scale.”

Belief

Additionally, the character Tim references writing the book Going After Cacciato which the author Tim had written and published previously. The theme of believing in the people around you and having reliable people with you comes from the time period being filled with people who are opposed to the action of war. This causes the people who are drafted into the mutual hate to band together to live.[3]