"The Things They Carried," By Tim O'Brien (Second Thoughts)

After reading this story and giving my mind time to digest the material, I came to the conclusion that Tim O'Brien is doing his best to create a story that portrays the true aspects of war.  I think he does this particularly well when he writes, "He wished he could find some great, sadness or even anger, but the emotion wasn't there and he couldn't make it happen."  Here Tim O'Brien is showing the true emotions of an individual in combat.  Kiowa doesn't know what to feel at this point and it seems that his emotions are confused between feeling happy that he is still alive and sad that his friend was just killed.  Unable to figure out which way to feel, Tim O'Brien is able to capture conflict of emotion that is so often experienced in combat.  Although my time in Iraq was not nearly as combat intensive as what most veterans experienced in Vietnam, I do know the emotions that come to the surface when faced with tough and nerve-racking situations.  I would guess that it would be very hard to capture the emotions that appear in a combat situation, but in my opinion Tim O'Brien completes this task very well.