1. The Things They Carried: The Things They Carried

O' Brien gives the reader the sense that the soldiers weren't just physically carrying baggage. All the pain, emotions, and memories were also weight on a soldier's shoulders. O'Brien is telling us that no person that hasn't experienced war will never be able to understand the weight which they were forced to carry. Through this explanation, the author reveals a humanness to the soldiers. They suffer. Every human has to suffer in order to be classified as human. Its part of our nature. O' Brien brings the soldiers to life with their struggles early on in the book.