The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (Summary and Review) - Minute Book Report

This is a quick summary and analysis of one of the chapters in The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. This channel discusses and reviews books, novels, and short stories through drawing...poorly.

This is a story about Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the leading officer of a band of soldiers in the Vietnam War. The lieutenant is in love with a girl named Martha who is back home attending college. He carries a couple of pictures and letters that she's sent.

The group comes across a tunnel and they draw numbers to see who has to go in to check it out.

As the unlucky soldier is checking out the tunnel, the rest of the men are relaxed, just standing around. Lieutenant Cross is daydreaming about Martha.

One of the men returns from urinating and gets shot in the head. The men regroup, strip the dead soldier of his gear, and call for a chopper to take him out.

As they are waiting, Lieutenant Cross digs a hole and cries, blaming himself for the soldier's death.

After the body is taken away, the lieutenant burns the letters and pictures, vowing to never get distracted again.

Rather than writing the story in a linear fashion, the author talks about the things the men carry as a way of telling the story. Descriptions of the things each of the men carry is given, which adds specificity, detail, and personality to each character.

More importantly, the author breaks down what each man carries by purpose. Whether it be necessity, field speciality, mission, or superstition, the things they carry are compartmentalized into groups, which the author then uses to reveal more about each character and the central plot.

The transformation of Lieutenant Cross from a lovesick young man to a hardened commanding officer is slow, but steady. At first Cross is reading Martha's letters each night and imagines what she is doing. However, Cross begins to doubt Martha's love for him. And it is this distraction that results in the death of the soldier. So it isn't so much that Cross is thinking about Martha. Rather, it is the doubting distraction that results in the death of the soldier.

Weight is also discussed in this story, both literally and figuratively. The things the men carry all have a physical weight, which the author includes to add more detail to the item. However, as the author continuously mentions the weight of the items, readers should begin to realize how heavy the weight is of the things they are actually carrying.

This intensifies when the author then introduces the figurative weight of emotions and responsibility that these men also carry. These men carry the land, the sky, their own lives, shame, reputations. This emotional baggage, which has no physical weight, has emotional weight that may, in some cases, be more heavy than physical things.

It is not until the men are flown out of Vietnam - that they become the objects being carried - that their burdens are lifted. And even then, it is never gone.

Through Minute Book Reports, hopefully you can get the plot and a few relevant discussion points in just a couple of minutes.

[MinuteBookReports]

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[ODayz]

who else is here because they have a test on the book tomorrow¿

[adogbomb]

they said this is the story of jimmy pretty sure this book is a lot about tim obrien

[aldovillagomez]

i think the book is more about story telling then it is about war and soldiers. Tim O’Brian crafted such amazing stories in this book

[ragelbagel]

I'm pretty sure this book is about O'Brien, and the physical things that they carried was only the first chapter. There's no mention of any of the actual plot in this, it's just an analysis of the things they carried in a very vague fashion.

[krego._]

Who else is here because of this being their finals?

[johnnyquestoo]

this is amazing, actually this really helped me for my midterm essay, thank you

[MsSuperSab]

Your videos have been so helpful, I'm taking a literature class and most of the short stories I've read are videos you've made, your summaries and analysis have really helped me grasp a better understanding of the short stories. If your open to video suggestion I have more short stories I'm reading that I'd love for you to do a summary of if you have the time. Let me know, Thanks!

[MinuteBookReports]

We're probably reading from the same short story collection. I am using the one from my Short Story Lit. class. I do take recommendations, but because I read faster than I can make the videos, there is a bit of a delay. Right now it's about three books/stories away.

Thanks for watching.

[MinuteBookReports]

Thanks. Unfortunately, this is only a summary and analysis of one of the chapters in the collection by Tim O'Brien. The chapter is titled, "The Things They Carried." The entire collection is quite good though.

[eproductions]

This is just the first chapter right? what about the rest of the book?

[erenslostarm]

No.. This is about the war in general, and the things the men carried with them, physical and mental. They carried with them their rifles, and grenades and rations and ponchos and all other things, but the heaviest objects to carry were not objects: it's the sorrow of killing others, the burden of watching your buddy drop dead, boom, down; "zapped while zipping" and the weight of their ever present fear of being a coward.

This book is phenominal, and cannot be explained in a minute, I'm sorry.

[carolineisSMEXY]

Honestly Thank you so much. You really helped me understand the book a lot more. This is much appriciated. (: great job!

[MinuteBookReports]

Yeah, this is more of a summary of the chapter rather than the entire collection. I wanted to focus on this chapter because it is the most widely published chapter in various short story collections.

[MinuteBookReports]

The collection is called "The Things They Carried" and the title of this short story has the same title. I picked this story because it's probably the most famous story out of the collection. Also, it's probably the most read.

[TheWinnerIsYouNES]

Oh thanks for reviewing this book I loved this one

[natelikesfun]

Yeah, I'm glad I read the book. This isn't exactly the most accurate video ever. Great as a supplement though! Anybody out there thinking that they can just watch the videos, I heavily suggest y'all read the book. There is so much that is left out here, and the book itself is a really great read.

[yassmineminou]

Is this the chapter of On the rainy river ???

[Fawzangamingforever]

Is this "Paper by fifty three" aap?
OMG u have no idea how helpful it was

[MinuteBookReports]

I use Paper by Fifty Three. It's an iPad app.