In Tim O'Briens short story, The Things They Carried, clearly describes the things the soldiers carried to get through and the challenges they faced daily to survive, but there is so much greater meaning behind the story. Tim O'Brien speaks from the heart and allows the story to connect with the reader, which in fact makes the physical things the soldiers carry carry an emotional burden as well. To make this easier, he disguises actual real-life events with fiction. The majority of his book is fiction with some real-life scenarios intertwined. The Vietnam War was so brutal that some people find it hard to talk about it, but they are still eager to raise awareness of the situation. According to Steven Kaplan, “The Vietnam War was in many ways a savage and terrible truth,” Obrien's fiction of the Vietnamese experience suggests, “one that does not reside in realistic depictions or definitive accounts. As O'Brien argues, "absolute occurrence is irrelevant" because "a real war story does not depend on that kind of truth" (Things 89). Committed to examining the relationship between the concrete and the imaginary, Obrien dismantles binarist notions of “truth that occurs and “truth of history”” (77-98). Tim O'Brien shows what kind of reaction his stories should elicit: “It comes down to instinct. “A true war story, if told truly, makes the stomach believe. » This emphasis on the body's visceral response to fiction well encapsulates O'Brien's investigation into the literal and metaphorical relationships between stories and bodies, particularly as such affiliations are forged by a psychological . of exile and displacement. » (77-98) O'Brien wants the reader to connect to the story on a personal level as well and he wants you to feel the pain the soldiers felt during and after the war. If the reader doesn't really feel the emotions contained in the text, then the story is not the same. The reader quickly learns that they are among the main characters in “The Things They Wore” and that each character is fictional. Most of Tim O'Brien's soldiers seemed to be constantly coming and going, due to the graphic nature of the war. To deal with this terrible feeling, O'Brien focused on the fictional characters in his story to try to ease the pain. He also wanted to write a memoir based on the Vietnam War, fictionally of course. The way his stories are described, it's almost as if he wants the reader to believe that they are reading a non-fiction story rather than a fictional story. He writes this story with such emotion and fear that it's hard to believe these are fictional memories. O'Brien's characters are still in fact fictional while they all carry heavy tangible burdens, they also all carry with them emotional burdens, composed of grief, fear, love and desire. The physical burden of each man further accentuates his emotional burden. Henry Dobbins wears his girlfriend's tights, he wears them to feel a sense of comfort for the one he loves and misses very much. Additionally, Jimmy Cross, who carries maps and compasses, he carries them with him so that he and his fellow soldiers do not get hit.