Translating Events of the Sixties - Essay Example

?Sur Lecturer Translating events of the Sixties Introduction The 1960s also the Sixties is the seventh decade in the 20th Century. Itdenotes inter related political and cultural trends worldwide. This decade is loosely described as the cultural decade than the actual decade itself especially from 1963 to around 1974. In America, the Sixties is a term that the journalists, historians, and other objective academics use in some cases to describe nostalgically the social revolution and the counter culture near the end of the decade and to describe the era pejoratively as one of the flamboyance and irresponsible excess. According to Joshua, this 60s decade was also termed the Swinging Sixties due to the relaxation or fall of some of the social taboos especially those that are related to the racism and sexism that took place during that time. However, the 1960s decade has resultantly become synonymous with the new subversive and radical trends and events of the period, which developed continually between the 1970s through to 1990s and beyond. Therefore this paper seeks to highlight how Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, translated the period, what was different about the story in illustrating the events of the sixties than the real thing. In addition, the paper will assess how the constellation of the historical moments of the 60s ended through discussion of the social, cultural, economic, and political events of the decade ended or changed according to the story, The Things They Carried. In accordance to Tim O'Brien's writings, the 1960s decade was also characterized by war movements. The Vietnam War eventually would have resulted to the commitment of more than a half a million troops of Americans that could result into the deaths of over 58500 Americans that may have produced an anti war movement in large scale in the American nations. By 1965, some few Americans made efforts to protest the involvement of America in the Vietnam War. The war however continued and the dead counts multiplied leading to the escalation of the civil unrest. The students and campuses of various Universities became so powerful and had disruptive force which sparked debates over the war nationally. Doubts about the war within the administration itself arose as the ideals of the movements spread beyond the university campuses. There was a mass movement that opposed the war of Vietnam that eventually ended the mass of the Moratorium protests in the year 1969 alongside the movement that resisted conscription for the war. In Tim O'Brien's short story The Things They Carried, the atrocious physical fears and conditions of a man that he is subjected to in order to have his reputation save is clearly revealed. The story illustrates the events of 1968, a story concerning the Infantry Platoon who fights in the Vietnam jungles including the weight which were both emotional and physical that they had to carry. The modern warriors of the day were particularly equipped with everything one could imagine. The book tries to translate the events of the sixties from what happened to the real things, according to Tim O'Brien, necessity determined most of the things they carried. Some of those things they had to carry as dictated by necessity were the pocketknives can openers, flak jackets, and helmets (O'Brien 281). Additionally, they carried other things that were basically determined by particular ranks of the warriors and their specialty such as weapons, radios, and ammunition (O'Brien 283). Superstition also contributed to the selection of some of the items they carries. These are things that were common with war in the sixties. For instance, a particular soldier carried a thumb cut from a dead VC body and another had the foot of a rabbit. The soldiers also carried other items that served the purposes of emotional comfort such as a pair of the pantyhose belonging to their girlfriends and bibles (O'Brien 287). The conditions of the weather in Vietnam were particularly harsh, humid and hot days and nights which were bitterly cold. In the period of the monsoon, every sing thing was covered with mud and drenched with rain. War never waited on weather. This actually was the weather of Vietnam in the sixties that was very hostile to the soldiers as translated by Tim O'Brien. Tim O'Brien also translates how soldiers in the sixties loaded themselves while going to war, "They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward against the heat, unthinking, toiling up the hills and down into the paddies just humping one step and then the next" (O'Brien 288). This translated how the soldiers had difficulty in crossing the fields of Vietnam. According to Tim O'Brien, the soldiers also had to carry the fear of death with the means of dealing with it, "some carried themselves with a sort of wistful resignation, others with pride or stiff soldierly discipline or good humor or macho zeal" (O'Brien, 291). These were things common with the sixties and even now among the soldiers at war. In fact O'Brien says that some of them used harsh words like zapped, lit up among others in order to have the pain of death eased. The soldiers were even afraid of showing their fear of death; leave alone the dread of losing their lives. In the end, those soldiers who returned alive home had another weight that they have not managed to offload, the guilt of having been in the Vietnam War (Smith “Tim O'Brien's books on Vietnam's legacy haunt and healm”). This among other events characterized the sixties. Other authors have emphasized the translation of the sixties as detailed in Tim O'Brien's short story The Things They Carried, the growth of the popular culture in the 1960s decade as indicated in Tim O'Brien's short story. This translates to the counter culture movement had dominance in the second phase of the decade. The writings also show the mega events ranging from the San Francisco’s Summer of Love in 1967 to the most eminent moments in the 1969 Woodstock Festival in the upstate New York. Tim O'Brien shows cultures that developed among the soldiers such as the use of psychedelic drugs like LSD medicinally, recreationally, and spiritually throughout late 1960s. With this regard, the period translate to the musicians who were very prominent in the decade also died of drug overdoses. A growing interest was seen in the eastern philosophy and religions during the decade. Several efforts were also directed to making found communes that varied from free love support to the support of religious Puritanism as seen in Tim O'Brien's story (Arthur 41). The constellation of the historical moments of the 60s ended through discussion of the social, cultural, economic, and political events of the decade ended or changed according to the story, The Things They Carried. This is seen in some of the commentators who experienced the 1960s era as a classical nightmare of Jungian cycle in which a stiff culture that is unable to host the demands of the greater freedom of individuals, which broke the social constraints free of the previous age via an extreme deviation from what is termed as normal. Booker Christopher in the scene of the 60s charts the success, rise and fall, and explosions of the decade, but this does not explain the massive nature of the phenomenon alone. In the early 1960s, most of the governments shifted to the left. For example, the political event of the decade that ended or changed can be witnessed in America where John F. Kennedy, a staunch anti communist and a Keynesian, made efforts to push for the social reforms like the civil rights for the healthcare for the poor and the elderly and African Americans. He was elected to the White House as the President. John F. Kennedy pledged to have a man landed on the moon before the end of the 1960 decade, an accomplishment that was achieved in the year 1969. Tim O'Brien cites such political events as having had occupied the sixties (Joshua 32). In the translation of the sixties events as portrayed in Tim O'Brien’s story, the 1960s decade were years of intricate challenges to the makers of the United States policy. This decade also had tremendous changes globally. Culturally, several things started percolating in the previous decades and eventually exploded in the period of Vietnam War. In the same decade, technical innovations altered the manner in which people lived as the music of the decade transformed the way in which people thought about things. All in a while, the wage of the Cold War continued as well in the same 1960s decade. This shows examples of cultural events that dominated the decade (Maslin 41). According to Tim O'Brien’s story, the Sixties were characterized by several political and social movements. In the second part of the decade, the group of the young started revolting against the conventional norms of the period and also removed themselves from the liberalism mainstream, specifically the high level of the materialism that was very common in that periodic era. This can be seen among the soldiers described in Tim O'Brien’s story, The Things They Carried. These events resulted into a counter culture that ignited a social revolution all over the western world. This whole event started in America simply as a reaction that was against the social conformity and conservatism of the 1950s, and the extensive military intervention of the government of the United States in Vietnam. Those youths who were implicated in the popular aspects of the social movement were referred to as the hippies. This particular group in the 1960s decade made up a movement towards the liberation of the society that included the questioning of the government and authority, sexual revolution, and demand of more rights and freedoms for the minorities and women. In the same decade, the Underground Press which was a widely spread eclectic collection of the newspapers was serving as the unifying mode of the counter culture. The hippies were also marked by the very first socially accepted widespread use of psychedelic music and drugs such as marijuana and LSD. These among others translates the mega constellation of the historical moments of the 60s ended through discussion of the social, cultural, economic, and political events of the decade ended or changed according to the story, The Things They Carried (Arthur 48). Conclusion In summary, the 1960s ended by showing people how they could impact politics through peaceful demonstrations. Due to the change of the Sixties, it was not possible in the West for politicians to stop demonstrations that opposed their policies. These were seen in Tim O'Brien’s story, The Things They Carried. Several conflicts in the 1960s were due to the ongoing Cold War between the West and the East, Capitalism and Communism were illustrated in his writings. Tim O'Brien showed the things that were of essence to the soldiers at that particular time and illustrated cultural, social and political events of the decade. An example of political event was John F. Kennedy who was elected the 35th President of America and ended up the Sixties by achieving the goal of leading a man to the moon. This era of 1960s ended with all the war and discrimination that were involved in it. The life of the minority Africa Americans were changed by the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act shaped their lives by ensuring equal rights to everyone. This paper has highlighted how Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, translated the period, what was different about the story in illustrating the events of the sixties than the real thing. In addition, the paper has assessed how the constellation of the historical moments of the 60s ended through discussion of the social, cultural, economic, and political events of the decade ended or changed according to the story, The Things They Carried. Works Cited Arthur, Marwick. The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print. Joshua, Zeitz. 1964: The Year the Sixties Began: American Heritage. New York: Prentice Hall. 2006. Print. Maslin, Jane. Brokaw Explores Another Turning Point, the ’60s. London: Springer. 2007. Print. O'Brien, Tim. "The Things They Carried". Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 4th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1991. 280-294 Smith, Erica. “Tim O'Brien's books on Vietnam's legacy haunt and healm,” Virginian Pilot, 2009 < http://hamptonroads.com/2009/04/tim-obriens-books-vietnams-legacy-haunt-and-heal Annex Assignment proposal The Sixties is the seventh decade in the 20th Century. It signifies inter related political and cultural trends worldwide. This decade is loosely described as the cultural decade than the actual decade itself especially from 1963 to around 1974. In this assignment, I will choose books and texts that were written and produced after the 1960s. I will then assess how the writings translated in the sixties and what was different about this writings in style details than the real thing. In addition, the assignment will focus on the Tim O’Brien’s novels particularly and will assess how the constellation of the historical moments of the 60s ended through discussion of the social, cultural, economic, and political events of the decade ended or changed. After relating the writings to the 1960s, I will use the reading and questioning skills that we have developed through the class and a sensible rhetoric that includes creativity and depth. I will also include introduction and conclusion, tone and voice, topic sentences leading back to thesis. This assignment will use 5 outside sources in order to enlighten my argument about the text. I will look for these sources among the books written by Tim O’Brien and other authors that who related the events that took place in the sixties. I will source these sources from the university online libraries and Journals from Wall Street. I will then give an annotated bibliography of the identified sources and then proceed to write my research paper. Annotated Bibliography Arthur, Marwick. The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print. This book addresses the political and social movements that characterized the sixties. The author talks about a group of the young that started revolting against the conventional norms of the period and also removed themselves from the liberalism mainstream. The books also discusses the events that resulted into a counter culture that ignited a social revolution all over the western world. The extensive military intervention of the government of the United States in Vietnam is also addressed. This source is important to my research as it helps in identifying the political events and movements that characterized the sixties. It has changed my way of seeing the sixties as a period of revolution and war. Joshua, Zeitz. 1964: The Year the Sixties Began: American Heritage. New York: Prentice Hall. 2006. Print. This book addresses commentators who have experienced the 1960s era as a classical nightmare of Jungian cycle in which a stiff culture that is unable to host the demands of the greater freedom of individuals. The author talks about Booker Christopher in the scene of the 60s charts the success, rise and fall, and explosions of the decade, but this does not explain the massive nature of the phenomenon alone. This source is also important in my paper because of the history it details on the commentators helpful in explaining the sixties. This book has enlightened by thinking of the staunch anti communist and a Keynesian. Maslin, Jane. Brokaw Explores Another Turning Point, the ’60s. London: Springer. 2007. Print. This book addresses the sixties decade as the years of intricate challenges to the makers of the United States policy. The author states that several things started percolating in the previous decades and eventually exploded in the period of Vietnam War. The paper discusses the technical innovations that altered the manner in which people lived as the music of the decade transformed the way in which people thought about things. This is why the book is important to my paper as it addresses the events of the sixties and changes my thinking about the innovation of music and the perception of the wage of the Cold War is the sixties O'Brien, Tim. "The Things They Carried". Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 4th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1991. 280-294 Tim O'Brien in this short story addresses atrocious physical fears and conditions of a man that he is subjected to in order to have his reputation save are clearly revealed. The book illustrates the events of 1968, a story concerning the Infantry Platoon who fights in the Vietnam jungles including the weight which were both emotional and physical that they had to carry. The book tries to translate the events of the sixties from what happened to the real things. This book is important to the paper because of the transition of the events that the author has discussed. It has also changed my thinking of the traditional soldiers and the things they needed for wars. Smith, Erica. “Tim O'Brien's books on Vietnam's legacy haunt and healm,” Virginian Pilot, 2009 < http://hamptonroads.com/2009/04/tim-obriens-books-vietnams-legacy-haunt-and-heal This article addresses things that were common with the sixties and even now among the soldiers at war. The author talks about the language of soldiers in the sixties such as the use of harsh words as well as being afraid to show fear. This book is important to our study because of the nature of events from the sixties it has addressed. It has also changed my thinking of the view of soldiers at war and their character in terms of language. Read More