All of us have baggage that we choose to proudly carry or shamefully shove in our deepest, darkest closets. We have possessions that are extensions of our own personalities and each have our own sob stories just the same. They all tell their own tales and have great meaning. In the first chapter of The Things They Carried, with the same name, author Tim O’Brien simply, yet skillfully informs his readers of the literal …showed first 75 words of 823 total…

…showed last 75 words of 823 total…his own story through what he carried physically as well as meta-physically. In this first chapter, O’Brien related to his readers through the natural human emotions many of the soldiers felt when placed in battle. Even though many do not wish to feel at all connected to the brutality of war, one could not help but sympathize for many of the men who, in reality, were not all that different than you or I.