M&M's in The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien uses many interesting literary devices in his collection of short stories about his experiences in Vietnam. One of the most surprising, yet understated, is his fleeting reference to M&M's. O'Brien allows them to be seen as something mysterious, an enigma. O'Brien transforms M&M's into a symbol of America: mystical, powerful and incredible. O'Brien also uses the simple image of a yo-yo to explain the need for American soldiers to transform their mental attitudes into something different in order to survive the war. M&M's and yo-yo's are two very powerful symbols that O'Brien uses to explain the mentality of American soldiers in Vietnam. "As a doctor, Rat Kiley carried a canvas bag full of morphine, plasma and malaria tablets, surgical tape and comic books. and all the things a doctor needs to carry with him, including M&M's for particularly serious wounds, for a weight total of almost 20 pounds." (O'Brien 5) The first mention of M&M's is cryptic. O'Brien uses a standard list to describe what Rat Kiley carries, until he reaches the M&M's. The M&M's are separated by a sentence, they are set apart; they receive special treatment. O'Brien makes it clear to the reader that M&M's should not be included on a doctor's normal list of things to carry. M&M's go far beyond just medical equipment. M&M's are for "particularly serious wounds", they treat more than bandages and duct tape can. O'Brien allows the reader to understand that M&M's have meaning and are very important to the soldiers. O'Brien's brief mention of M&M's allows us to wonder when this magical cure is used. Rat Kiley gives Tim M&M's when he gets shot? Could M&M's have saved Rat when he went crazy? Are M&M's something so mystical that they don't even need to be mentioned? O'Brien creates M&M's as a symbol of all that soldiers leave behind. For Kiowa, M&M's embodies the spirit of her grandmother and her father's faith. To Norman Bowker, M&M's mean as much as his medals mean to his father. For O'Brien, M&M's captures the spirit of a kindly old man from Minnesota. M&M's are O'Brien's alternate symbol for "Mommy and Apple Pie." Another symbol used by O'Brien is Mitchell Sanders' yo-yo, Sanders is playing with his yo-yo when Curt Lemon is killed.