The Thin Line Between Bravery and Cowardice in the Things They Carried

Edwin Hubbel Chapin was once quoted saying, "At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion." This belief is held true throughout Tim O'Brien's short story, "The Things They Carried." A story whose setting is placed within the action of the Vietnam War, O'Brien uses extensive imagery in order to describe each soldier's specific physical burdens and in the long run he emphasizes the recurring theme of bravery and the effects of war on individuals. This imager…