Introduction Vietnam War was among the most dramatic, polarizing, and controversial events of the second half of the 20th century for the United States. Many people believed that the war was the representation of America’s greatness and power as a country; on the contrary, many others considered it to be the violation of human rights, pointless waste of national resources (both economic and human ones), and the greatest tragedy of the current generation. These polarizing opinions and debates are still present in the contemporary scholarly literature, political discourses, and ordinary conversations. However, it is essential to precisely state the fact that the most crucial aspect of any war is the personal tragedy of an individual, the collision of a person’s dreams and hopes with the reality of a military conflict. One of the better means of expressing this aspect is fictional literature. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the short story by Tim O’Brien, which is entitled The Things They Carried , to explore its uniqueness, to discuss techniques and arguments which are employed by the author, and to define the importance of the chosen literary piece to retrieve a profound conclusion. The Uniqueness of the Chosen Literary Work Brief Characteristic of the Author First of all, it is important to briefly touch upon the personality of the author to offer a more in-depth context for the further analysis of the literary piece. Tim O’Brien was born on October 1, 1946, in Austin, Minnesota and was drafted for military service in Vietnam in 1968 (Stowell 3). After returning from the army, he studied in Harvard and worked as a reporter for different periodicals (Stowell 3). However, he is most recognized for his literary works, which he began to publish since 1973. It is possible to say that the author significantly contributed to the development of the comprehension of the Vietnam War in the American literature. The literary piece under consideration, The Things They Carried , was published in 1990, and in this story, O’Brien continued to explore the settings of the war and numerous issues which are related to it. The following sections will explore various aspects of the literary work. Core Literary Features of the Story Furthermore, it is possible to observe the unique characteristics of the short story under discussion in general before dwelling upon the particular aspects more thoroughly and profoundly. In other words, this section serves as an outline for the further developing of this paper. The following questions will guide the development of the paper: (1) what techniques does the author uses, and (2) what arguments are central to his literary work. These are two principal areas of inquiry for conducting the analysis. First of all, the aspect of technique should be observed to retrieve the most significant features to dwell upon. It is possible to notice one of the critical literary devices that author uses is the word “carry” as a metaphor. This word is present in the title of the story, and it is used throughout the narration in various meanings. Also, the other characteristics of the literary work, such as the composition of the text, use of vivid vocabulary, and narrative approach, will be analyzed as well. Secondly, after building an analytical basis for