Blog 3- S.S

The novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a story regarding lives of American soldiers in the Vietnam War in particular regarding the men in the Alpha Company. The stories O’Brien tells in his book are fictional war stories, although the stories may appear to be non-fictional, it is understood these stories accurately capture what the American soldiers underwent during the Vietnam War.
The title “Things they carried” is significant because the soldiers carried many things, both tangible and intangible. O’Brien opens the book with a chapter called The Things They Carried”. O’ Brien describes some of the tangible things the men carried “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near necessities were P-38,can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags…two or three canteens of water…Together these items weighed between 12 and 18 pounds” (2). These men also carried intangibles. The men carried enormous intangible burden of, friends, family and most importantly of one and other. “For the most part they carried themselves with poise, a kind of dignity. Now and then however there were times of panic and when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn’t” (18). Although they were soldiers and they were expected to be physically and mentally strong. The amount of burden the men carried both physical and emotional was unbearable.
O’Brien does an excellent job capturing the true lives of the men at war. Since this book was a work of fiction O’Brien may have extended the truth at time to make the stories more appealing to its audience. O’Brien was able to tell the story through his own memories of the War. “Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). We know the stories are true but we do not know how much truth is being told, but most importantly from these stories we have learned that American soldiers in Vietnam underwent many hardships both emotionally and physically.
Apart from carrying physical things, O’Brien also carried some intangible things. O’Brien carried the guilt of going to war because he believed it was not a cause worth fighting over. “I did not want to die. Not ever. But certainly not then, not there, not in a wrong war” (42). O’Brien tells a story that he is very compassionate regarding which he has not told anyone before. O’Brien states that he was not a hero. O’Brien panics as soon as he learns that he is being drafted to go to Vietnam War. O’Brien decides to make a run to Canada but eventually decides that he will not to evade the draft and go to Vietnam because he did not want to disappoint this family, and friends. O’Brien does not feel like a Hero because he describes a hero as someone who does not go against his or her own beliefs. A hero is not necessarily someone who sacrifices his life over their country but it is someone who will sacrifice his or her life for a cause they believe in.
O ‘Brien decides to end the book with a story regarding Linda. Tim O’Brien speaks of Linda who was he was madly in love with. Linda was diagnosed with a brain tumor and she dies at age 9. O’Brien is devastated with the death of Linda. In fact O’Brien is devastated every time he witnesses a dead body. Even at war O’Brien cannot handle dead bodies, every time O’Brien witnesses a dead body it reminds him of Linda. Every time he thinks of Linda it reminds him of how he could not stand up to Nick Veenhof when he took off Linda’s hat in front of the entire class to reveal he hairless scalp. O’Brien thought it was would ruin his reputation and pride. This was also evident when O’Brien had to make a decision whether he was going to go to Canada to evade the draft. O’Brien decides to go to Vietnam because he did not want to ruin his families and his own reputation. As human beings we take pride in our reputation and often make decisions to save our reputation.