The Marxist/Economic Lens serves to promote economic change such as overcoming capitalism and those who hold the power of wealth, as well as incorporating the roles of money, of politics and power in literature. He emphasizes that literary works are a product of the economic and social conditions of its time or the time in which the story is set, where it was used most in books and theater, where the influences of the time period remain much more prevalent (Brizee ). . Used to represent the ways in which certain forces choose to distribute power among groups, the lens incorporates class conflicts and the preference of materialism over spirituality (DiYanni 2173). In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, the Marxist/economic lens provides insight into the class differences in American society and the economic powers of the Vietnam War in relation to the struggles that young soldiers faced firsthand before, during and even after the war. war. The means of production translate into the soldiers who are fighting the war (they really control and suffer through the fighting), but the ones making the decisions are the leaders of these nations who have decided to go ahead with the war. The bourgeoisie are the leaders, the elite who dictate the main decisions of war, while the soldiers act as the proletariat, a mass of men who are mostly conscripted and forced to fight according to the orders and rules of these leaders, i.e. the bourgeoisie (Polukis). The media plays a role through government encouragement, broadcasting these "lottery systems", extensively interviewing and analyzing new draft news. Furthermore, the war is practically broadcast to the American public (Polukis). All around there is a sense of romanticism in the outlook of society which ...... middle of paper ...... oppresses people and prevents the masses from being able to overcome the domination of the American government. As the lens suggests, disagreement in the political system stemmed from having different benefits and risks for the people and the government. Looking at the country from a macroeconomic perspective, the country has been through war. Individually, however, a mass of conflicting opinions emerged that made the Vietnam War a convoluted and complex topic, but which accompanied the decisions of the leaders who carried out the war rather than the people, unclear and full of doubts. about the war. While paying for the war, the American people were also the ones who sent their children to sacrifice their lives, where the soldiers who were drafted were forced to go to a war that the majority of Americans did not support or fully understand (Polukis).