Girish 1

Gehena Girish

Ms. Mann

AP Literature Block 4

8 November 2017

Memories of a War Story Reader

58,000. The number of American soldiers that died in Vietnam. 18. The number of years

that Americans were in Vietnam. 500,000. The number of soldiers who experienced a form of

PTSD after the war. The Vietnam War is considered by many to be one of the darkest periods in

American history, but the events of the war led to some reflective works of literature by soldiers

as a way to cope with their time overseasone of these profound novels is Tim OBriens The

Things They Carried, considered a contemporary American classic. OBriens novel is a set of

short stories chronicling a fictional company of American soldiers and their experiences in

Vietnam, based off his real-life experiences. OBriens The Things They Carried is not only a

window into the life of a soldier during wartime, but a literary classicthe novels ability to

transcend generations and to explore undermined war themes allow readers to enjoy the novel as

well as analyze it.

OBriens writing style incorporates his own Vietnam experiences into a work of fiction,

allowing readers a new look into the world of Vietnam through fictional meansmaking the

novel comprehensible by the average reader. In his analysis of The Things They Carried, Alex

Vernon, a literary critic, points out OBriens intentions in writing and marketing the novelthe

novel and its content should be relatable to the general public. One instance of OBriens

relatability in the novel is in the short story How to Tell a True War Story, where the narrator,

Tim, explains to the reader the shortcomings of telling war stories, which is seemingly relatable
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to personal stresses or traumatic events: In any war story, but especially a true one, its difficult

to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own

happening and has to be told that wayOften the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isnt

(OBrien 68). Tim, while narrating this explanation, reflects upon the nature of trauma, in that

we mistake the truth for lies and the lies for truth, and it becomes realour reality becomes

fiction while our fiction becomes a reality. OBriens ability to mix fiction with reality is an

effective tool in his quest for relatability, as his overall goal as a writer, as stated in an interview

for NPR, is to hit the human heart and to make a person feel something about what the

characters are going through and to experiences the struggles of being human (OBrien).

Through his realistic Vietnam war stories, OBriens The Things They Carried fulfills its ability

to reach all readers, regardless of their background or own experiences. In a review of the novel,

one reader commented that The Things They Carried allowed them to feel what [they] imagine

to be the reality of that war (OBrien), demonstrating how the novel illustrates Vietnam for

readers. In the excerpt and in the interpretations of the novel, OBrien brings the heart of

Vietnam to the readers, in that he makes his experiences something that his readers can relate to.

At the beginning of the novel, Tim narrates that each of the characters humped something to

Vietnam as a lucky charm of sorts, which further proves the novels relatability by giving readers

a point of connection. This quality of The Things They Carried is one merit of the novel that

deems it a classic.

While the novel is able to connect to readers, The Things They Carried also offers a

powerful message on the influence of morality in a land of immorality, capturing how our sense

of right and wrong is warped during wartime. A large part of the novel focuses on what a soldier

is to do if he doesnt believe in the war hes fighting, and the narrator, Tim, explores this in
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detail. Inspired by OBriens reaction to his draft letter, Tim cites his reasons for an initial

cowardice to the war call: I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too

everything. It couldnt happen. I was above it (OBrien 39). Tims personal views are overtaken

by his countrys, and he narrates: I was a coward. I went to the war (OBrien 79). OBrien

points out how the moral compass is skewed in The Things They Carried, since Tim moves from

being staunchly against Vietnam involvement to fighting in the war, albeit with a shadow of

cowardice. Later in the novel, Tim describes the man he killeda young boy who Tim

personifies as a way to cope with his guilt: [the boy] liked books. He wanted someday to be a

teacher of mathematics. At night, lying on his mat, he could not picture himself doing the brave

things his father had done, or his uncles, or the heroes of the stories (OBrien 119). OBriens

narrator progresses from a nave boy who initially refused the war altogether to a soldier who

killed someone out of necessity. This progression is highlighted by one critic as soldiers

experience[ing] moral disorientation as they seek to serve honorably, but they cannot establish an

overarching morality system for the entire group (Bonney). OBriens exploration of morality in

The Things They Carried leads readers to the conclusion that during war, soldiers are unable to

stick to the moral compass they knowinstead, war requires soldiers to establish a system to

justify the violence war requires (Bonney). In the novel, Tim has to come to terms with killing

someone, an action undeniably immoral in another time, but normaland even necessaryin

this one. The novel effectively brings in a universal theme that is relatable through every century

and every war ever fought. Not only does OBrien explore morality in terms accessible to the

reader, but he allows the reader to come to a profound and universal conclusion about morality

or its lack thereof during Vietnam, and through any war.

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OBrien captures an important aspect of the war that other novels have yet to delve into

in regards to Vietnamthe role of uncertainty. For Tim, and the other characters of The Things

They Carried, uncertainty is a main part of their lives overseas. Tim highlights the role of

uncertainty in his explanation of true war stories, as he argues that to generalize about war is

like generalizing about peace. Almost everything is true. Almost nothing is trueIn war you

lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore its safe to say that

in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true (OBrien 77-78). OBrien delves into the idea

of uncertainty, and as one scholarly article put it, Tim OBrien shows that recognizing and

exploring the uncertainties about the war is perhaps the closest one can come to finding anything

certain at all (Kaplan). The sense of instability and uncertainty is a topic not as explored when it

comes to Vietnam, but OBrien prioritizes it, as seen even in the smallest of details: naming

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (5), as if naming the state makes the location more certain, and this

authorial decision is unique, adding to the qualities that make this novel a classic. OBriens

choice to highlight uncertainty as a factor in fighting brings light to the issues faced by soldiers

on a mental level and serves as a unique way to differentiate the stories of The Things They

Carried when compared with other Vietnam or war novels.

The Things They Carried is, at its simplest form, a book about the war feeling, as

embodied in both its title and its format. The war feeling is the impact that the war had on its

soldiers, on the people that were directly involved and affected by the decisions madeOBrien

being one of them. Twenty years after the novels publishing, OBrien, in an interview, pointed

out that he still carries the war with him: I carry the memories or the ghosts of a place called

Vietnam, the people of Vietnam, my fellow soldiers. More importantly, I guess, I carry the

weight of responsibility and a sense of abiding guilt (OBrien). OBriens chosen method of
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coping with the things he carries is writing stories, which he feels, are for joining the past to the

future, for those late hours in the night when you cant remember how you got from where you

were to where you are, for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember

except the story (34). The short stories the novel is comprised of are physical embodiments of

the war feeling, as OBrien has an opportunity to reminisce and share on his experiences in

Vietnam. Through the novel, OBrien allows Vietnam to survive in the public mind. His stories,

although focused on Vietnam, relate to every soldier coping with their time overseas, and The

Things They Carried is a way for Vietnam to live on, since there is direct proof it is effective in

telling a unique Vietnam story. The longevity of The Things They Carried, both in the public eye

and in the sense of its message, is a final reason why OBriens novel is a classica classic is

relevant to the audience even years after its release, and people are able to experience the impact

of Vietnam even in the modern day, over forty years after its end.

Tim OBriens The Things They Carried is a unique take on Vietnam, but manages to

capture a place in the heart of readers because of its relatability to the war experience, analysis of

morality and uncertainty, and writing style. All of these factors are what categorizes the novel as

an American classic, since it is a novel unlike any other. Many soldiers have written about their

time in Vietnam, but The Things They Carried has a distinct way of telling the Vietnam story

that makes the novel an extraordinary read, due to OBriens unique voice and storytelling

capability. For young and old, for soldiers and not, Vietnam deserves to be told and remembered,

and instead of merely reducing the war to numbers and statistics, Tim OBrien allows for an

impactful and realistic read of the Vietnam war that leaves room for both enjoyment and

interpretation.
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Works Cited

Bonney, Sarah. Morality and Pleasure in Tim OBriens The Things They Carried. Criterion: A

Journal of Literary Criticism, Volume 9, Issue 1, 2016,

http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1106&context=criterion 20

October 2017.

Kaplan, Steve. The Underlying Uncertainty of the Narrator in Tim OBriens The Things They

Carried. Vol. 35, no. 1, 1993.

http://faculty.weber.edu/srogers/archive/SP05/3210/handouts/Kaplan.pdf 20 October

2017

OBrien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Houghton Mifflin, 1990.

OBrien, Tim. The Things They Carried, 20 Years On. Talk of the Nation. Host Neal Cohan.

National Public Radio, 24 March 2010.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125128156 18 October 2017.

Vernon, Alex. Field Notes on The Things They Carried. War, Literature, and the Arts, 2015.

http://wlajournal.com/wlaarchive/28/vernon.pdf 20 October 2017.