The Things They Carried

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One of the major concepts is the role of social interaction in adolescent development. The protagonist, Charlie, is exposed to many social extremes; gay bashing, group violence, rape, communal drug use, etc. While Chbosky fails at introducing these situations realistically (the effects of which will be discussed later), they still serve as talking points on the social interaction of young people, and as such, they are valuable to the novel. Chbosky argues in favor of realization of trauma as potential for growth; the supposed everyman Charlie was a molestation victim as a child, a fact he repressed until urged to enter into a sexual situation he could not deal with. While his breakdown provides the epilogue for the book and places him into a mental hospital, he comes out of the whole thing as a supposed fuller individual who is more self actualized than he would have been without realizing the sexual trauma of his youth or, more drastically,