Blog 3 RR

Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" does a very good job of describing the lives of the American soldier during the Vietnam War. He allows the reader to develop more of a personal relationship with the soldiers, instead of just describing scenery and events. This helps the reader to understand more of what is going on in each soldier's mind, and not just what one can see in plain view.

O'Brien begins with the first chapter, The Things They Carried, for a few reasons. The first is that he wants to show the reader the human behind the soldier. It showed that although these men were in a fight for their lives, they still were reminded of and thought of the things and those that they left at home. It humanizes the characters. He also wants to show the reader how difficult it is for a soldier to keep his mind set on the present, instead of reminiscing and losing touch with the immensity of the war. He specifically lists the things that each person carries, such as pictures, C-rations, salt tablets; he also lists the intangible things that each person carries such as guilt, fear, and anger. This is an important aspect of a soldier's life to understand. Although he only has a 30 lb bag on his pack, he is truly carrying around insurmountable weight.
There are many different "definitions" of hero. It could be the person that goes out of their way to help others. The person who does or has done brave or honorable acts. O'Brien doesn't necessarily see it like that. He talks about most of his troop-mates and how he feels that they are heroes, but not because of the reasons above. He says that what makes a hero is one that can make difficult decisions and is prepared to defend them. He talks about the soldiers that go home and are upset and angry because they did not receive a parade, and wonders why someone would want a parade after coming home from an endless mistake of a war. He does not consider these people heroes. We can also see his perspective of a hero when he decides to go to his draft board instead of running to Canada. O'Brien made a conscious decision to go back home after spending a week or so at the border because he wanted to make the right decision.

O'Brien also explains the difference between "truth" and "true". Although they seem to mean the same thing, he explains that they are two very different words. He explains that the truth is what actually happened: the facts and events that took place. However, true, is up for interpretation, dependant on who is telling the story. For example, when Kiowa dies, there are many "true" stories that arise in the platoon. Kiowa was hit and killed with shrapnel, and sunk into the shit field. That is the truth. However, Lieutenant Cross sees that he chose a bad strategic place to stay the night and Kiowa's death is his fault. Norman Bowker feels that it is his fault because he let go of Kiowa's boot. We can see that though Norman and Lieutenant Cross are speaking of the same event, what is true can be very different. This is where the notion of fiction comes in. O'Brien describes in Good Form that he was a soldier, and that there were many dead bodies, but he did not ever look at their faces. Then he goes on to describe the boy he had killed in a prior chapter. He describes this as true vs. truth. What is the truth are the actual events, he calls this happening truth. What is true is what may very well have happened, but is story-truth. He is sure that a slim man was killed, although he didn't see it for himself. He says that the story-truth makes the past become present.

He ends the book discussing his childhood sweetheart, Linda. Linda died at the age of nine from a brain tumor. He reminisces about their first date to the theater with his parents, her red cap that she wore all the time, and then describes her sickness. I believe that he ends the book with this story because it seems to be the only thing that still causes hurt for him. It seems that speaking about the war all this time has helped him cope, and this is his way of coping with the death of his first-love, which he has yet to do. It brings the book full-circle. The first chapter was about the things (tangible and intangible) that soldiers carried. O'Brien not once mentioned Linda during this chapter. However, it ends with what O'Brien carried during the war and still carries: the hurt and sadness of losing his first love.

Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" is a very interesting book structurally. It has no chronology of any type and jumps from event to event. I think he does this to try to give us the feeling of being at war: although there are things happening in the present, there are still things happening in the past in your mind, and what might be in the future. It also may be a symbol for the chaos of the war.