So, this book so far is very interesting to read and I think I like this book the best because it is somewhat down to earth, but it also has hidden meanings and themes. I believe that there are many different themes for this book, especially because I believe each chapter is portraying a different theme. For example, I think that the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” represents how people tell stories to show the truth of what he or she experienced, but changing some details to show the true hardships that he or she went through. Tim O’Brien does this by having the characters constantly contradicting each other, which explains how the reader does not know who to trust and fully believe. O’Brien wants his audience to realize that real truth of a story is not as important as the actual story telling in general. Another theme for the book is described throughout the entire book and basically is summed up by the title The Things They Carried. The title of the book can have many different meanings and since reading the book, I have uncovered some of the meaning. I believe that when a person goes to war, they end up experiencing things that they will never forget. So, the title of the book reveals that the soldiers are carrying big loads, literally and figuratively. The men in the stories are carrying the essentials along with many heavy instruments that are needed in war. Not only are they physically carrying things, they are encountering bizarre things that they have to carry with them the rest of there lives. Some things they deal with are some of their friends being killed, trying to stay alive themselves, and just knowing that the whole country they are representing are all counting on them. This book is a true, fake story of what happened during the war through the eyes of a soldier. This book is filled with many themes, and I know I will encounter many more as I keep reading.

Alright, so first I am going to talk about the word modernism for a brief moment. “Modernism is a blanket term for an explosion of new styles and trends in the arts in the first half of the 20th century” (Postmodernism for Beginners). This basically explains that there are certain styles that are portrayed in this era. So, with that in mind what does postmodernism mean? Well, the dumb, easy answer would be to say that it is modernism (just a few years later). However, that is not all of it. “Postmodernism- whatever it is- is an attempt to make sense of what is going on” (Postmodernism for Beginners). Postmodernism is a way for people to understand what is happening in the world today. It is very confusing because everyone has their own opinions and experiences of what is going on today, which makes it hard to get a clear and distinct understanding of postmodernism. There is no one truth because the world can not come to an agreement about anything whether it is about religion, morality, politics, social life, of life in general. Along the lines of this is something called metanarratives, also known as grand narratives. Metanarratives are “big stories, stories of mythic proportions that claim to be able to account for, explain and subordinate all lesser, little, local narratives” (Postmodernism for Beginners). This is another reason why postmodernism can not be fully explained. Metanarratives are simply myths, which can change depending on who is telling the myth at the given time, making it almost impossible to know who is telling the truth, which justifies why there is so much trouble having the world believe the same thing. So, overall I am not sure what the real definition of postmodernism is, but I do know that it is a concept showing the new styles in society. Postmodernism can not be understood fully until the world begins to agree on some things.