Personally, I think O'Brien's book is effective because it humanizes the characters. They feel like real, everyday people—not just fictionalized war heroes. Much of the writing feels like a memoir, and while it is true that O'Brien served in Vietnam and draws from his experiences, this is not a true memoir because parts are fabricated. Readers often expect that the characters are real people, only to find out they are made up. I think this shows how his writing is so believable, and therefore more effective than something obviously fictional.
O'Brien chooses to write about what the soldiers are carrying and what the items' significance is. This is a different way of approaching writing about war, and I think it is effective because it subverts our expectations and tells us more about the characters. If we wanted to just read about the war, we could read a history book.
In an interview with Port City Daily, O'Brien explains his thought process:
What we carry says a lot about the people we are . . . It's telling, the things that we carry. And on top of that, it's one of those overlooked things about combat that really, as far as I know, hasn't been written about much . . . which is just that incredible weight that soldiers bear in wars, and what it does to your psychology and your judgment. You get tired enough and you're lugging around a hundred pounds and it's, you know, 90 degrees out and you're exhausted and you've been walking all day with your stuff—you get careless and make killing mistakes, I mean, mistakes that kill people and sometimes yourself.
As O'Brien says, the things we carry say a lot about ourselves, and that's why I think this choice is effective storytelling.
Since this is an opinion-based question, your response may vary! Think about how you felt while reading this book, and how that differs from how you feel when reading about war in different narrative formats. How does O'Brien's writing draw you in?
https://portcitydaily.com/local-news/2014/01/13/interview-the-big-read-author-tim-obrien-on-the-things-they-carried-and-finding-truth-in-fiction/
Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is definitely not a heroic war story in the vein of old John Wayne movies; rather, it shows readers the horrors of war. Showing readers Kiowa dying in a field of sewage is a horrific image that most readers will likely never forget. I would classify the book as a realistic war story.
The answer to your question is subjective, so feel free to defend your personal thoughts. The first thing to figure out is what "more effective" means. O'Brien's story is more effective at what? It most certainly is less effective at glamorizing war. Perhaps the question is asking you to explain how O'Brien's storytelling style is more effective at showing the randomness, unfairness, and reality of war and combat. Anybody can die in O'Brien's story, no matter how morally good or bad they are. Characters can die no matter what their heroic actions look like. This is a sharp contrast to heroic war stories in which the protagonist seems impervious to death and suffering. Those stories seem to tell readers that if a person is brave enough, they will survive. That isn't telling readers the truth. Finally, a story like O'Brien's shows that war leaves its "heroes" with emotional and mental scars long after combat ends. Heroic war stories erroneously teach readers that survivors live happily ever after.
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