The story that I picked is The Things They Carried.

The historical setting is Vietnam during the war. The cultural background is about an American soldier's experiences in the Vietnam War. I am not too familiar with the war in Vietnam. The setting in which the story takes place, the places in the story, and the fact that the war is in Vietnam are the important cultural and historical clues in the story. These clues reveal when and where the story occurs and allow the readers to understand the context in which the events are happening. I would like to find out more about not only the Vietnam War in general, but about the casualty figures. Also I'd like to look more at the culture of the Vietnemese people themselves in general not only during the war but possibly before and after the war as well.