Blog 3

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a wonderful novel about many stories told by the narrator Tim O’Brien as well as other characters as they go through the struggles of war. Many of the themes throughout this novel are burdens carried by these soldiers, horrors of war, heroism or lack thereof, the art of storytelling, and death. Tim O’Brien uses his amazing writing style and personal stories mixed with fictional ideas to relay a powerful message about the Vietnam War to those unaware of what it was like to serve during the war.

In the beginning chapter of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried he begins by explaining the Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’ love for his one date wonder Martha. Martha occupies all thoughts of Cross and leaves him with the burden of wondering whether she was a burden or not. Later in the chapter, Ted Lavender is shot, and Cross cannot help, but feel responsible for this action. He feels that because he was so occupied with Martha that he became negligent, leading to Lavender’s death. Because of this, Cross now takes the horror and burden of this death on his shoulders. He later burns the pictures to try and get rid of these memories and thoughts of Martha hoping never to relive the negligence. Also, O’Brien mentions the things his fellow soldiers carry like tranquilizers and marijuana. These are used to calm the soldiers, specifically Ted Lavender. The burden and emotions that belong to these soldiers are large and demoralizing. They are young kids, teens and twenties, fighting wars and having to carry the thoughts of killing and being killed. They often talk about how death can be right around the corner, and how scary death is.

Another major theme throughout the story is the notion of being a heroic soldier. There are the misconceptions that war is somewhat heroic, that all soldiers work hard to do the heroic thing for their country, and the man beside them. The opposite is true. There is nothing heroic when it comes to actually fighting in the war. There are scenes about the death of Curt Lemon, as well as others, where anything but heroics is cited. There are many stories, including the one about Curt Lemon, that add real power and gain the attention of the reader to help tell the cruelties of war. Now, these stories are not necessarily true. O’Brien uses these stories, on the border of fact and fiction not to reiterate the Vietnam War, but to drill the atrocities of war into the head of the reader. A quote by Tim O’Brien says, “By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others.” This shows how telling stories is not for accuracy, but for point, in order for Tim O’Brien and the other story tellers to get their point across. The fiction parts of story make the story as a whole fiction, but the ideas and problems within the war are very, very real.

Even though there are real problems within the war, and many people die, O’Brien always seems to have to deal with deaths. First there is Lavender, then Lemon, Kiowa, and finally Linda. The first three were tragedy of the war. There really is nothing he could have done about it. O’Brien has a hard time coping with the fact that life and death are indeed very close to each other. The final death of the story, Linda, O’Brien’s childhood sweetheart takes the biggest toll on him because of innocence. The other three were in war, and even though they may not have deserved it, that was the problem with war. Linda however, did nothing to deserve it. O’Brien realizes that life itself is a precious thing to hold on to. He was risking his life shooting other men and being shot at, but Linda dies without causing a problem. It makes it tough for O’Brien to put it into perspective, and leaves him wondering about life and death.