Tim's Purpose for TTTC

Tim O'Briens purpose for writing "The Things They Carried" is to save himself. Tim's writing leads him through memories that "might otherwise have ended in paralysis or worse" (152). Norman Bowker hangs himself a short while after the war. The war traumatized Norman to the point of taking his own life. Through the stories Tim creates he is able to resolve his emotions. All the traumatic memory Tim experianced he turns into stories. Tim saves himself from death by writing "The Things They Carried". He relieves the burdon of all the emotions he carries from Vietnam by writing continuously.