The Undead in The Things They Carried I've done things I'm not proud of, and some things that will never be mentioned in public again. In everything I have done wrong I have tried to justify it or make it seem like a less negative act. Tim O'Brien does not do this in his short story entitled "The Man I Killed". O'Brien instead gives the young Vietnamese a history, a present and a whole life. It does this by creating an elaborate story of teenage love, family conflict, and personal pride. O'Brien was a soldier in the Vietnam War, fighting against communism. He wrote the book The Things They Carried, about his personal experiences as a soldier. The environment he found himself in was one of constant death and endless turmoil. Most of the deaths he writes about involved his comrades. After seeing all this and the needless deaths of Vietnamese civilians, a fighter's heart should be hardened. O'Brien seems to be different: he is still strongly affected by the killing of this young man, who belonged to the communist group. The death of the Vietnamese soldier remains in O'Brien's mind for what seemed like an eternity. He vividly remembers the shape of his body, noticing the most minute details. The deceased boy was considered a delicate young man, clean nails, light freckles on his forehead and a frail, frail figure. O'Brien uses a lot of detail in describing the body after multiple bullet wounds. He explains how his left cheek is pulled back, that his spinal cord was open through his neck, and, of all things, a gold ring on his right hand with the third finger pointing down. The golden ring is the point with which Tim forges a young lover for the young man. From the frail image of his body, O'Brien regards the deceased as a scholar who was at school when he met his seventeen-year-old young love. O'Brien believes she has an admiration for the narrow waist and cowlick that sprouted on the back of her head. the young scholar was a mathematician and liked school. This student was unable to defend himself and was constantly targeted by schoolyard bullies. He prayed at night with his mother for the end of the war.