In the book Things They Carried Tim O'Brien describes the circumstances surrounding the Vietnam War, but more importantly he introduces us to his fellow companions and the burdens he carried with them. With Tim's personal story, the book illustrates rather unique picture of the war: graphic, intense, and most important of all personal. His personal story allows us to focus on the men who fought the war, and enables us to understand opposition to war from a very personal point of view. Through the characters, Tim describes how war leaves lasting impressions of soldiers, sometimes resulting in changing them forever.

Throughout the book, many soldiers failed to maintain normality as they stayed in the abnormal conditions of the war. In "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" Tim O'Brien describes a beautiful girl named Mary Anne Belle, who arrived to Vietnam with hardly any knowledge of the war. She...