# The Things They Carried

**Author:** Tim O'Brien
**Lexile:** 880L
**Grade range:** Grades 11–12
**Age range:** 15–18
**First published:** 1990
**Page count:** 256
**Genre:** War Novel
**ISBN-13:** `9780618706419`
**ISBN-10:** `0618706410`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/the-things-they-carried
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Tim O'Brien's linked collection blends fiction and memoir to convey the physical and emotional weight carried by a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War — and by the men who survived it. Blurring the line between what happened and what feels true, the book interrogates storytelling itself as a way to carry memory and guilt. A common grades 11-12 and AP text for war literature and narrative-truth units.

## Themes

- war
- memory
- guilt and memory
- storytelling
- mortality

## Content notes

- war violence
- death
- strong language

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