Tim O'Brien's book The Things They Carried is a novel which conveys some of the experiences, burdens and feelings of the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War. All of these are conveyed through a series of a short stories, each of which has a specific point and effectively manages to convey the harsh realities of war.
Rather than using what most people would call true stories, stories based in fact, to explain how the war affected the soldiers, O’Brien instead uses ‘true’ stories. These stories are not based in fact, but instead in the emotions that the soldiers felt during a certain situation. He uses these fictional stories because he believes it is more important to convey what the war was like to the soldiers and to elicit a response from the audience, rather than providing them with stories that they cannot empathize with. It is through his use of emotions as a basis for the stories that O’Brien blurs the lines between reality and fiction and is able to reveal the ugliness of war rather than the heroics that war is usually associated with.
In the first chapter, O’Brien lists all of the things the men carry with them in Vietnam which is also a way for him to convey the feelings and burdens of the men. They not only carry the necessities, but they carry their emotional baggage with them as well. Many of the men carry comfort items, ranging from M&M’s, and pantyhose to tranquilizers and pictures. All of these items work together to show the reader that the men carry things like memories, guilt, love, pain, and anguish with them as well and symbolize just how heavy their burdens are. Most of them even carry fear- the fear of death and the fear of letting others see their fear. One of the recurring themes towards the end of the chapter is that the men only go to war, fight, kill, and make jokes about everything because they fear looking like cowards in front of their families, friends and fellow soldiers. This is seen in how the men act after being in a firefight and more specifically in why O’Brien returns home after being drafted.
Another theme that is dealt with is loss of innocence. This is seen in how young all of the soldiers are and how some of them cope with death and the realities of war. A good example of this is when Jimmy Cross thinks about how is only 24 years old and should not be a commander in a war at such a young age. Every soldier sent to Vietnam has to deal with growing up and losing their innocence through the harsh realities of war. As a result each soldier must also face the side effects of such events and are left dealing with them after the war. This is also a common theme throughout the book, the side effects of the war that the soldiers are left to face alone once they return home. It comes up again and again, from Cross visiting O’Brien to writing stories about the war to Bowker who hangs himself because he can’t find anyone else to listen.
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Tim O'Brien's book "The Things They Carried" is a novel which conveys some of the experiences, burdens, and feelings of the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War. All of these are conveyed though a series of short stories, each of which has a specific point and effectively manages to convey the harsh realities and effects of war.
ReplyDeleteIn the first chapter, O'Brien lists all of the things the men carry with them in Vietnam which is also a way for him to convey the feelings and burdens of the men. They not only carry the necessities, but they carry their emotional baggage with them as well. Many of the men carry comfort items, ranging from M&M's and pantyhose to tranquilizers and pictures. All of these items work together to show the reader that the men carry things like memories, guilt, love, plan, and anguish with them as well and symbolize just how heavy their burdens are. Most of them even carry fear- the feat of death and the fear of letting others see their fear/ One of the recurring themes toward the end of the chapter is that the men only go to war and then fight, kill, and make jokes about everything because they fear looking like cowards in front of their families, friends, and fellow soldiers. This is seen how the men act after being involved in a firefight and more specifically in why O'Brien returns home after running away upon finding out about his draft notice. O'Brien begins the book with this chapter to show how war affects the soldiers and to show that they are just everyday men who have been sent to war.
The last chapter of the book deals with Tim's childhood sweetheart, Linda. The reason behind ending the book with this chapter is to show that the dead are never truly dead because they continue to live on through stories and memories. I think the purpose of ending the book this way is to address the relationship between life and death, between the living and the dead, something all soldiers must deal with during a war. Rather than mourning the death of a loved one, O'Brien suggests celebrating them in death by remembering them when living.
The story of Linda and the idea of death brings up a theme that is every present throughout the book. That theme is the loss of innocence. Linda represents O'Brien's loss of innocence because she is his first love, his first death, and his first experience with a dead body. In death Linda loses her innocence and as a result, Tim also loses his. Mary Anne, a character found in the chapter "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" also represents the loss of innocence as she is sucked into the harsh realities of war. Mary Anne arrives in Vietnam the picture of innocence- she is a woman and she is naive and unassuming about the ways of war. By the end of the chapter she has turned into a soldier, going on dangerous, classified missions with the greenies and wearing a necklace of tongues. Eventually, she has lost so much of her innocence that she chooses to remain in Vietnam permanently, leaving the soldiers behind and disappearing into Vietnam.
Throughout the book, the reader is enver sure if stories such as Mary Anne's are true or not because O'Brien plays with the idea of truth constantly. At one point he states that in telling a story a soldier can do two things, he can tell the truth which will really be a lie because it does not express the reality of what happened and the underlying emotions of the experience. The second option is that the soldier can make up a story and that story will be truer than the true story because of the ideas and emotions it conveys.
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ReplyDeleteOne of the things I found to be most interesting in the book is what O'Brien's idea of a hero is. In the "On the Rainy River" chapter, Tim state's that Elroy, owner of the Tip Top Lodge, is "the hero of my life." Elroy symbolizes Tim's idea of a hero because he does not question or push Tim towards any type of decision but instead sits back and gives Tim the time to grow up and take charge of his own life. I thought this was interesting because I would not have imagined that Tim's idea of a hero is someone who does very little to solve the problem. I would have imagined someone more like the Lone Ranger, Tim's original idea of a hero, who swoops in and saves the day. This just goes to show that when a person is put into a situation where heroism can become an everyday thing, it can really change your perception of what or who a hero is.