7. Theme

The themes in The Things They Carried are strength, courage, and companionship.Strength because while in Vietnam the men see many disturbing things.They learn to toughen up and do things that they never thought they would do. Courage because they live knowing that they could die at any momentand finally, Comraderie. The soldiers in the story become close to one another and when a soldier dies it affects everyone differently. For some the death of a comrade is harder to deal with than for others.