The emotional stress that most soldiers carry with them into war is due to their inexperience and age. The majority of men who fought in the Vietnam War were between the ages of eighteen and twenty. Among these men were sons, spouses, friends, boyfriends and students, who could not comprehend the idea of ​​war, murder or cope with the unexpected deaths of their friends. From the beginning of the story, O'Brien, the author of "The Things They Carried," uses specific details and illustrations to show readers what the men's experience during the Vietnam War was like. Among the many things these men carry are guilt, fear, grief, and stress. Throughout the story, O'Brien emphasizes the terrible events that these men carry with them by incorporating the use of multiple themes such as: emotional and physical burden, fear, psychological well-being and the use of motifs and symbols such as death in handling difficult situations. situations.Tim O'Brien, who is the author and narrator, describes the "things" that all the men in the platoon wear and carry. In the title The Things They Carried, the word "things" symbolizes what each man carried with him throughout the war, both literally and figuratively. Although many soldiers carry physical objects, they also all carry emotional objects such as fear, terror, love, death, and desire. Throughout the story, each character's physical burden accentuates their emotional burden. The many different “things” each person carried also depended on many other factors, including their personal needs, wants, and emotional well-being. O'Brien illustrates the physical things each man carried by describing and detailing each object to create a ment...... middle of paper ......if he narrates. In most cases, O'Brien presents himself as the representative of the general statements he makes about the war. Reading The Things They Carried, O'Brien is indeed our guide through the inexplicable anxiety of war and the perfect example of how dire situations can turn an intelligent, sensible man into a soldier who acts irrationally without reasonable explanation. Sometimes O'Brien goes dark and lets another character or third person tell the story. This technique gives a human aspect to the themes of the stories and gives us the opportunity to understand the events that men experience during the war from several different angles. O'Brien constructs a remarkable plot through his writing. Reading The Things They Carried is often like spending extended time with an old war veteran, allowing their memories to slowly return to them..