Analyzing the story's craftsmanship Tim O'Brien wrote a story that is known as "The Things They Carried." It is a carefully crafted, detailed account of a Lieutenant and his men, the time period being right in the middle of the Vietnam war. In most war stories the author spends most of his or her time describing actions and events to the reader, trying to really put the reader "right there" in the middle of everything that is happening. However, O'Brien drifts away from that trend here, hardly describing any events of importance to any one but me sign. Rather, he focuses on the thoughts of the soldiers, the inner feelings, small personal day dreams and strange things that really describe the men. Being out in the wilderness, far from home or anything they recognize, these men must deal with the mental and physical stresses of war, when they jion the army I see it as signing away there souls they are then asked to murder people over stupid issues. Here is where O'Brien starts up his literary art form. One thing that was interesting to mention is that I noticed when reading the story is the fact that the story is written in third person. The narrator is not actually in the story, merely t

elling us of the events, and yet we still get to see inside Lt. Cross's mind to more accurately picture his feelings. The narrator also, although letting us see the innermost, personal thoughts of Cross, always refers to the Lieutenant as either "he,", "him," or "Lt. Cross," never speaking of him by only his first name, which may seem rather formal. Also, it is odd that O'Brien the aurthor should choose the third person to write in when creating a story such as this one. Usually when an author wants the reader to feel what the main character is feeling, they will write the story in the first person point of view, to give the events and thoughts a more personal touch. However, the way O'Brien phrases his sentences, it is really very simple for the reader to get that accurate feeling for the main character, even! though it is not the main character speaking. For example, on the next to last page of the story, there is a large piece that speaks about Lt. Cross's feelings. "On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha's letters. Then he burned the two photographs. There was a steady rain falling. . . He realized it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental, too, but mostly

Some common words found in the essay are:
Lt Cross, Tim O'Brien, Khe Hansen, LT Cross, Lt Cross's, Jimmy Cross, Stupid Sentimental, lt cross, Carried Analyzing, Ted Lavender, emotional baggage, main character, lt cross's, third person,
Approximate Word count = 853
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)