The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien - Book Report/Review Example

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien Tim O’Brien has been credited for many of his literary contributions. Several of his novels and books have included an articulation of his experiences at the Vietnam War and The Things They Carried is one of them. Having born in a small town of Minnesota, Tim O’Brien graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. Although he was against the Vietnam War, Tim O’Brien was sent to serve in the ‘American Division’, a platoon O’Brien has referred to as “unlucky” due to its involvement in the My Lai massacre. When the author got a draft notice, he describes the moment as one which he could not believe was actually happening to him. In an interview he gave to the American Experience, he recalls how his infantry division was stationed in Pinkville, a place so unwelcoming and terrible that it gives him “the chills” as he sees the name of the place (n.pag.). Tim O’Brien describes the conditions of the war; there were land mines everywhere so one could not walk nor shoot in fear that the mines would blow up. The result was instant frustration which even built up – even within the author who was against the war – for one could not even defend oneself. O’Brien has also legitimized the warring motivations of those involved in the Vietcong saying that the people were rather driven by a nationalistic feeling than any other. O’Brien has also described his feelings of empathy and sympathy for the people who were essentially poor civilians. The Things They Carried takes its inspirations from the Vietnam War and the experiences of the author, considering his anti-war feelings. In The Things They Carried, the author presents a memoir of his experiences as a soldier, retracing the events of the Vietnam War. The book can be called a collection of inter-related short stories with the main protagonist sharing the same name as the author – Tim O’Brien. Tim O’Brien has presented his experiences of the war by creating a fictional story blended with real life experiences through the lens of the main character, Tim O’Brien. O’Brien, in the book, is a Vietnam War veteran turned author who is narrating the stories throughout the book. The book starts with a description about Lt. Jimmy Cross, who receives letters from a young college-going girl named Martha. O’Brien describes the state of unrequited love which Lt. Jimmy Cross felt towards Martha and felt the letters in the hope that they had been touched by Martha. Only a few lines later, O’Brien tells us that “the things they carried” were out of necessity, from where the book gets its name. Such items of necessity as O’Brien later lists down, includes canteens, grenades, and stationary, although lice, ringworms, paddy algae, rots, molds, leeches, and the land, are also among the “things” they carried that were essentially unnecessary (1-3). Perhaps the significance of listing down such items is to bring the readers into the situation that has been going on in the field where every item of necessity had to be carried along far trails that went through thick forests, rice paddies, and other tricky land spaces. But most importantly, the same soldiers also carry with them stories of their experiences (Calloway, 249). Having chosen a book title as The Things They Carried aims to put the audience to the setting of the book where everything of necessity had to be carried along. However, sometimes the soldiers of the infantry also found themselves to be carrying things they did not intend to nor were they necessary such as microorganisms picked up as the soldiers walked through the rice paddies and areas covered with grass and plants. But perhaps the soldiers carry with them an everlasting impression of war experiences that may later become stories that will connect the past with the future. What O’Brien also tries to communicate constantly through the fictional character Tim is the fact that he did not approve of the war and how the villages inhabited by poor peasant farmers were being treated. O’Brien has also mentioned similar sentiments in his interview where he says that such warring actions by the American side has spurred into thinking how he would have reacted had it been the same situation back at his home. Therefore, to instill a feeling of actually being there, O’Brien uses a fictional story greatly inspired by his real life war time experiences so as to point out the value of truth. What is unique about the work is that it seeks to embark on a fictional journey, at the same time trying to stress on the truth of war and peace. O’Brien constantly assesses how stories are told and are accepted as the truth. Instead of taking truth as a factually correct phenomenon, O’Brien takes truth as merely anything that is impactful upon its target, in this case, the reader. Thus, The Things They Carried is an insightful story in its form which talks about the sensory and lasting stories being carried by soldiers. Once a story succeeds in drawing in the emotional dimension of an individual, it has done its task regardless of its factual accuracy. In a way, O’Brien goes along the same way trying to reminisce his own war memories through the lens of a fictitious character that shares his name and somewhat his stories. In an interview given to Josephine Reed in 2008, Tim O’Brien said that the sensory impressions received through our sense of sight can be deceiving (n.pag.). Meaning, there are limits to our sense of sight and knowledge as everything cannot be seen. Thus, to conclude that truth necessitates accuracy would be misleading. Many previous works set in warzones have presented a very generalized view on the state of war and human experiences. However, with The Things They Carried, the author has attempted to emphasize how Truth with a capital ‘T’ is difficult to obtain since it is subjected to one’s own set of stories that they carry. The Things They Carried narrates the stories of several war soldiers in the Vietnam War, each with his own story which explains the impossibility of absolute knowledge regarding the truth about war. O’Brien can be noticed arguing about the nature of truth which cannot be known fully in absolute terms apart from the separate varying stories from diverse subjects having gone through similar experiences. What matters is not the accuracy in the story but its ability to capture lasting moments and to impact the future generation of listeners or readers. Fiction is central instrument used by O’Brien so as to narrate wide collection of stories. O’Brien, to a great extent, has built up on his personal accounts of the wartime and how the war impacted mostly the poor peasantry in Vietnam. Having built up a huge collection of personal stories, it did not matter if these were fictional or non-fictional but rather its impact on others and how others would view their past and history in time. The fictional character in the book, also with the same name, shares many things in common apart from his name, particularly his transformation to a writer. Having previously been a participatory soldier in the Vietnam War, O’Brien was in a good position to articulate his experiences thereby giving it voice, without any emphasis on its truthfulness. Therefore, what remained were remarkable stories of the war ground making their powerful impact on the people through subjective discourse. The arguments surely make sense as one tries to read his book with a sense that none of the stories are meant to be true but aim at its experiential nature which the book provides to its readers. As an unwilling soldier, Tim O’Brien demonstrates a sense that the stories and experiences he has retained from the Vietnam War can only be disseminated to the audiences by telling them stories which are perceived to be meaningful rather than any emphasis on its truthful nature. Equally important in the book are his views on the celebrated attributes of courage and soldiery. Quite a lot of time, O’Brien has made it obvious that he had always opposed war and that he did not want to take part in the war either. He explains how he could not believe himself that he was going to fight the war after he got the draft notice. Being an anti-war advocate, O’Brien has also narrated his own story where he plans to run away to Canada in order to avoid giving his services in the infantry division. Only the summers before his service, O’Brien had been working in a meat packing factory; he left work early and drove towards Canada to circumvent the draft. On the way, O’Brien stops at a fish lodge to make a plan where the owner of the fish lodge helps him to cross a lake to flee to Canada. However, O’Brien later gives in to the social pressures pertaining to courage and his participation at the war. O’Brien admits how he felt schizophrenic at not being able to make up his mind. He feels uncertain about his evaluations of courage and thus has a hard time deciding his run-away plan. This because her fears going to war but also fears having to be an exile. Either way, his definition of courage is rather unconventional than the usual notions of courage and masculinity. The work is a great literary contribution to the historical war waged in Vietnam. The war had been an important event in history and reams and piles have been written about the war. However, does it matter if there is truth in them or not? For O’Brien truth is only subjective in the sense that each experience by the different soldiers have created its representation of the war and none of them can be categorized as a fallacy as its fictional feature cannot eliminate the impact it had on the receivers of the stories. In his book, O’Brien has included several stories, each revolving around a different soldier to bring their own stories to the audiences in different ways as they have been experienced. However, these stories are not at all restricted by any criterion of truth but only pieces of experiences that are to be told to the coming generations. The book successfully presents its arguments regarding concepts of truth and courage, especially at war times when such attributes are praised. The writer’s way of presentation is a set of fictional stories that bear somewhat similarities with the feelings that had been gone through by the various soldiers. The way the stories have been constructed fictionally is what adds weight to it. Also, the fictional character and the main protagonist in the book is an individual who shares the name with the author, triggering perceptions that the book is an autobiography-like account of the war, However, O’Brien’s constant stress on notions of truth and courage give the readers an idea that the aim is not to present a factually accurate physical account but to engage the readers through a narration of the events that had a lasting impact on the life of the author. The Vietnam War holds an important place in the heart of the author whose personal experiences at the war have helped inspire many of his timeless works. The novel reflects on to a recurring memory of the war and places an individual in a position where she or he feels emotionally involved with the stories being heard. Thus, the emphasis is not on the strict conformity with factual legitimacy but with its emotional captivation that stimulates the reader to think through the lens of experiences that heavily impacted those who fought in the war. Finally, O’Brien also tries to explain a sense of purposelessness in the war, often relating with the Vietnamese populace as he attaches his own empathy with their condition. With his book, Tim O’Brien has tried to connect the events of the war with the present as such events elapse quite quickly in the temporal space. Works Cited Calloway, Catherine. '“How To Tell A True War Story”: Metafiction In The Things They Carried'. Critique: studies in contemporary fiction 36.4 (1995): 249--257. Print. Reed, Josephine. Interview with Tim O’Brien. The Big Read. The Big Read, 2008. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. . O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Penguin, 1990. Print. O’Brien, Tim. Interview by American Experience. PBS. WGBH Educational Foundation, 2009. 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