identity, class, gender, innocence, family and friendship. William S. Burroughs William S. Burroughs was an American writer known for his experimental novels that provide insight into themes of sexuality and drug addiction. His works were part of the Beat Movement. His experimental novel, Naked Lunch, is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes. Burroughs himself stated that the vignettes have "“no real plot, no beginning, no end," and that the vignettes can be read in any order: "Start anyplace you want. Start in the middle and read your way out. In short, start anywhere." Naked Lunch explores themes of drug use, homosexuality, violence, and paranoia. Due to its fragmented and non-linear narrative structure, Naked Lunch may be difficult to follow, and Meagan Wilson (2012) describes it as "a labyrinth of incoherent narrative fragments." The novel's publisher, Olympia Press, referred to the novel as "the great secret novel of the Beat Generation", and the novel gained a strong underground following. Tim O'Brien Tim O'Brien is an American novelist whose works depict American experiences of the Vietnam War. His collection of short stories The Things They Carried contains related vignettes that describe sentimental objects that soldiers took with them to the war in Vietnam. As well as objects, the vignettes depict emotions the soldiers experienced during the war, such as terror and homesickness. The Things They Carried blurs the lines between fact and fiction as the first-person narrator has the same name as the author (Tim O'Brien). Each vignette explores themes such as loss, displacement, memory, trauma, and the nature of truth. O'Brien's writing style in The Things They Carried is informal, colloquial, and straightforward. Some stories are told in first person from the perspective of protagonist Tim, while others are told in a more detached third person omniscient point of view. See also Sketch Story Flash fiction Vignette (psychology) Slice of Life Short Story Drabble Poetry Novel References Further reading Hemingway, E. (1925). In Our Time . New York, United States: Boni & Liveright. Cisneros, S. (1984). The House on Mango Street. New York, United States: Arte Público Press. Burroughs, W. (1959). Naked Lunch. Paris, France: Olympia Press. O'Brien, T. (1990). The Things They Carried. Boston, United States: Houghton Mifflin. Cordell, R., et al. (2019). Classifying Vignettes, Modelling Hybridity. Minneapolis, USA: University of Minnesota Press. Armstrong, J. (2016). Gothic Matters of De-Composition: The Pastoral Dead in Contemporary American Fiction. Text