Blog 3 BJR

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried has been labeled as both a great book about war, as well as a great example of writing. It chronicles his experiences in the Vietnam War, and the years after. It deals with both the physical and emotional consequences of the not only the war in general, but many smaller aspects as seen through O’Brien’s eyes are analyzed and reviewed.
The structure of the story is truly laid out in the first chapter. In this chapter, entitled “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien lists and describes the physical things that the soldiers carried, from weapons, to food, to drugs. More importantly he writes about the emotional and intangible burdens that were carried. These range again from guilt, fear, responsibility, and brotherhood. I think that he choose to start the book like this because he wanted to lay out how the rest of the book would be. He didn’t want to mislead the reader into thinking that it was just a war story, or that it was just a book about the emotional impact. He is also able to relay some of the feeling of war to the reader in a basic manner.
O’Brien states that the war is not being fought for the men involved to become heroes. He says that they don’t aim to be heroes, and that it is not a goal for them. For almost every person involved in the war, his number one goal was to stay alive, and do his job, and to do what he believed was the right thing to do. If something that they do makes them a hero, then that is how it is, not the other way around. We all have an image of a hero in our head. For some it is one who puts the lives of others before themselves, others may see it as one who does something exceptional against all odds. Tim O’Brien spends large portion of the book on the idea of what a hero is. In the end his idea of a hero, is one who can make hard decisions, and one who can do what they think is right. But making these decisions and taking these actions are not enough. They have to be able to stand up and believe in their actions and defend them if the need arises. For this reason, he views many of his comrades as heroes. An important aspect of the book is that O’Brien does not consider himself a hero because he wanted to go to Canada to avoid the war and did not because he let others influence him, and did not stick to his guns.
Most people think that the words “true”, and “the truth” are synonymous. According to O’Brien, they are far from it. What he considers to be the truth is; what is true and has happened, and can be backed up with facts. What is true however has a different meaning. A reccurring piece in the book is how different people observe things, and therefore people have a different review of the past. A great example of this is the death of Ted Lavender. It is the truth that he was killed after going to the bathroom. However according to Jimmy Cross it is true that Cross was responsible for Lavender’s death. Other soldiers know it is true that Lavender was not always in the best mental state due to the drugs he took. That is why not everything can be true for everyone involved.
One of the more important quotes from the book is when O’Brien is telling how to tell a war story. He says that if you tell the story as it happened and keeps the truth throughout, not many people will not believe the story and may be inclined to question it. That is why he says that you need to add or take away some points, so that those not involved with the story will believe it and take it for the truth. I think that that is why O’Brien considers the book to be a fictional one. While the book is based on his experiences, he may have changed some of the writing around to keep the reader’s attention, and make the book into a better novel. People tell these stories to help themselves deal with something.
I think that he ends the book with a chapter about his childhood sweetheart, Linda, to help and ease the pain. This was the first time that he dealt with death, and clearly that is something that he had to deal with throughout the war. I think the told this story because of the same reasons that other soldiers told their stories, and that is to help themselves deal with the pain, and to try and get others to feel what they are feeling at the time. I also believe that this chapter was included because, like Linda, Tim also loved the men of which he served with.
Overall this book is outstanding. It is not just a war novel, yet it is not just a reflection. It a great example of storytelling and how writing can change things. This book is about how the men who fought and died in Vietnam dealt with it, and how some could not deal with it. This was the story of one man who did what he had to do.