In the book "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien the author talks about a person's life and the Vietnam War. The book is narrated by the person who's life is described. The book talks about how during his time in the military he was a leader of a unit during the Vietnam war.  He had once been deeply in love with a girl named Martha. Martha distracted him from the war so he burned all the photos he had of her. The book goes into flashbacks most of the time and about his life before and during the war.

   The book starts off with a war story. He talks about each person and there backgrounds. During the war the narrator shows struggle through the war and how tragedy's happened at random times and that they were unpredictable. He talks about one time were he was looking at a photo of Martha and he let a soldier named Ted Lavender use the restroom. Ted Lavender was then shot and killed. He took full blame for this and this is why he burned all of his photos of Martha. 

  He had always been in love with Martha. At some points in the story it seems as if he to in love with her. He describes intimate imaginations of him and her. He has very vivid memories of her. There is one memory of when they first met. Martha always thought of him as a friend but he thought otherwise.  Even when he had to stop loving her however he still thought of her.

There was a flashback of what happened before the war. He had gotten a draft notice and was really scared. When he was 21 years old he got home and received a draft notice. He drove to very northern US and went to a hotel. The hotel was very old and rundown. He became good friends with the owner. Even though the owner didn't talk much he felt very close to him. During this time his emotions rolled out and he had no idea what to do.

This is a very emotional book. It does a very good job at describing the hardship and struggle during the Vietnam war. The book however did not do a good job using transitions, often times the story would just switch from one story to another. This is a very interesting book.