The Things They Carried - Essay Example

The Things They Carried Order No. 266674 No. of pages: 4 Premium 6530 The pages of American history is stained with one of the most controversial and widely discussed debacles ‘The Vietnam War’ which even in these modern times arouses passionate feelings in the hearts of the Americans. The fate of the Vietnam War was already concluded as being futile but the country’s leadership continued to feed the fires of war. In retrospect, the war was considered to be a kind of campaign which did not prove to be an asset for America, but on the other hand turned out to be a graveyard for the many martyrs who had laid down their precious lives for this very cause. The Vietnam War sparked off or gave birth to a burst of literary talent that ranged from fiction to non- fiction and which was mostly written by the very people who had served the country with their lives on the wars frontline. The stories that were written were cathartic in nature as it was more personal and contained pain and emotional outrage. One such touching story was penned by Tim O’Brien and was titled – “The Things They carried. The book mirrors a series of short stories gleaned from the lives of the soldiers, who were at the epicenter of this whirlpool of pain, disillusionment and war. O’Brien deftly moves in and out from the past to the present giving a vivid description of the misery of the people and the destruction that this war had caused. “The Things They carried” is a graphic representation of an emotionally charged scenario of the senseless and heartless war that took place in Vietnam of O’Brien was a part of and hence had first hand knowledge of the painful happenings. In the author’s own words - “I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why the story truth is truer sometimes than happening truth” (203). The main idea differently presented throughout the book, is that the real truth is sometimes vague to be represented literary. As an author the events are sometimes recreated, but that does not make them less true. In that matter, the truth of war is especially applied in this context. Though various excerpts from the text can be interpreted in a way that can contribute to that truth, a specific event repeatedly mentioned through the book is taken into consideration, which is the death of Kiowa whose story is related many times to emphasize the fact of truth. In analyzing the truth O’Brien takes his stance on the subject of truth through his vivid explanation on chapters like “How to Tell a True War”, “Good Form” and “Spin”. In “Good Form”, he explains why the written story truth is different than the real truth,” I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth”. (179) In the Chapter “Spin” O’Brien relates to the peaceful events that were not identified with violence, but still took place during the time of the Vietnam War. He makes a casual reference to the death of Kiowa but in actuality he is trying to hide the truth which is so hurtful. He says -, “I sit at this typewriter and stare through my words and watch Kiowa sinking into the deep muck of a shit field” (32) This type of story truth does not necessarily represent the actual “happening” or fact of Kiowa sinking. Nevertheless, the story truth is much better when representing the moments that O’Brien wanted to deliver but which are the erased memories of the war, and some of those moments that cannot be erased. Viewing it from this angle it seems that the truth told in the book is “truer” than the real truth, where assumingly it might have happened without O’Brien literally watching Kiowa sinking. The Things They Carried has been termed as meta-fiction, where the line between the real and imagined is blurred, and here the author explores narrative fiction in a way such that the fictionality of the real world is also surmised at. (Calloway, Catherine) In this context, Kiowa, called the emotional compass of the Alpha Company, the name of Tim O’Brien’s platoon in the Vietnam War, serves as the informal psychiatrist of the band. It is to him that everyone bares their souls, much like the author does after killing the Vietnamese soldier, unburdening his guilt and lifting the heavy weight placed on his soul. The truth aspect of the narrative is clear only when talking to Kiowa, because the internal anguish of each man is laid open and bare in conversations with him. The author goes so far as to say that "A true war story is never moral," in the chapter titled "How to Tell a True War Story" and this reasserts the theory that the only truth in them is that they definitely are ambiguous. The issue of saying the truth is a very important conundrum for the writer and this forms the main theme of the story "The Man I Killed," where Kiowa exhorts O’Brien to talk about the killing, so his conscience could be purged. Kiowa’s death in the muddy field which happens to be the toilet of the village where the fighting takes place causes a sense of disgust as well as brings out the reality that war is metaphorically, literally and figuratively, a dirty thing. “In the Field” gives us the view of Kiowa’s death as seen by other members. A view of an unnamed soldier, for example described that event that preceding before showing Kiowa a picture of his ex-girlfriend, “Hey, shes cute, hed said - and then the field exploded all around them. Like murder, the boy thought. The flashlight made it happen. dumb and dangerous. And as a result his friend Kiowa was dead.” (170) In this episode the story truth is made as a representation of the how this unnamed soldier felt guilty and held himself responsible for Kiowa’s death. This and other death scenes impacts the author in such a way that they begin to exercise the “hallucinatory power of snapshots etched into memory” (Webster, Mark) The stories are as true as the Vietnam War itself, but the constantly changing accounts of single incidents serve to throw up an image of conflict which competes for veracity in the readers consciousness much like the truth of the war experience muddles up the thinking process of the author. Because of the over riding concern for truth, this piece of fiction becomes an "ethically controlled fantasy" according to Robert Scholes. “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien deals with both the real truth as well as truth that was implied to help the reader feel the suffering and pain of all those people who went through the rigors of war and who wanted to voice their side of the story in whatever way possible just to ease the horrors experienced by them. References Calloway, Catherine, How to tell a true war story: Metafiction in The Things They Carried.., Vol. 36, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, June, 1995, pp 249 ff. OBrien, Tim. The things they carried. New York: Broadway Books, 1998. The Tim Obrien Websites. http://www.users.interport.net/m/k/mklweb/illyria.com/.../tobsites.html The Things They Carried. www.jvoegele.com/essays/things.html Vietnam recollections relive the war’s surreal horror. http://www-tech.mit.edu/V110/N22/thing.22a.html Read More