Ah, to a young man everything seems beautiful and noble if he falls in war, torn to pieces under a sharp bronze blade and lies there dead. . .but whatever death lays bare, all wounds are signs of glory. (Homer 22.83-87) As students we are brainwashed by ancient myths such as the Iliad, where war is exalted and the valiant warrior praised. Yet modern novels like Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried (THINGS) challenge these very notions. Like the Iliad, THINGS is about war. It's about battles and soldiers, victory and survival, yet the message O'Brien gives us in THINGS is almost contradictory to the traditional war story. While traditional war stories take place on battlefields where soldier fights soldier and men's courage is tested, O'Brien's battle takes place in the dark, private place of a soldier's mind. Like the Vietnam War itself, THINGS forces Americans to question the foundations of their beliefs and values ​​because it calls attention to the conscience within. More than a war story, O'Brien's The Things They Carried is an exposé of personal courage. Gone are the brave and glorious warriors like those found at the Battle of Troy. In THINGS, they are replaced by young people who experience not glory or courage, but fear, horror, and a personal sense of shame. As mythical courage clashes with the modern experience of it, a battle is fought in COSE that isn't limited to the rice balls, jungles, and shit fields of Vietnam. Carrying with him more than the typical soldier's wares, O'Brien's narrator is armed with an arsenal of feelings and words that strike at an invisible enemy that is the myth of courage, on an invisible battlefield that is the mind of Vietnam veteran. An analysis of the structure in... middle of paper......ings They Carried." Studies in Contemporary Fiction. 35.1 (1993): 43. Expanded Academic ASAP.Lopez, Ken. "Tim O'Brien: An Introduction to His Writing. of Displacement in The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien." Contemporary Literature. 39.1 (1998): 77. Extended Academic ASAP. King, Rosemary. "O'Brien's 'How to Tell a True War Story.'" The Explicator. 57.3 (1999): 182. Academic Expansion ASAP. Passaro, Vince "The Things They Carry (Review)." Harper's Magazine (1999): 80. Academic Expansion ASAP, Daniel 'Brien." Contemporary Fiction Studies. 40.3 (1999): 257. Academic expanded soon.