The Things They Carried Book by Tim O Brien
The Things They Carried is a collection of linked short stories by American novelist Tim O’Brien, about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War. His third book about the war, it is based upon his experiences as a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division.
The primary theme in The Things They Carried is the burdens that everyone carries, specifically, in this case, the men fighting on the ground in the Vietnam war. The things that they carried were both physical, like their equipment, and metaphorical, like the weight of their emotional battles.