The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried is composed of 22 closely related short stories. Why do you think the author chose to break up his narrative into individual stories rather than writing a traditional novel?

In several stories throughout the book, the narrator says, “I’m forty-three years old, true, and I’m a writer now” (171). Why do you think the narrator repeats this phrase so often? Does it change the way you read the stories and if so, how?

As the men travel through the war zone, they encounter many helpful locals, such as the woman who tries to warn them not to camp by the field and the old man who guides them through the minefields. Why does the author bother to include portraits of such characters? How do they affect the overall moral tone of the book?