Summary of The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien - Book Report/Review Example

"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien Introduction The main goal of writers who create the stories about war is to make their stories based on the real events, which attracted them and will attract the readers. Many authors do their best to represent real facts in order to make their work more credible. The event inspires creative personalities to write about it adding their own view and opinion. Nevertheless, in his writing "The Things They Carried", the purpose of Tim O'Brien is quite different. He did not even try to represent real events, on the contrary, his stories are fictional. The author wants to make his readers think about the real truth and the information provided by the authorities. He emphasizes that official information about the event usually misses many important moments. O'Brien reminds us that his writing is fiction and the events he writes about did not really take place. Such words as “real and “reality” are applied by the author throughout the story to make the readers doubt any information no matter if it is official or not. “Speaking of Courage” When we read Tim O'Brien's stories for the first time, we become so deeply involved with the characters and the plot, that we can hardly believe the fact that these stories are fictional. Every story discusses its own theme: courage and heroism, the meaning of death, the truth, the nature of war, the meaning of friendship. There are many stories about the life of ex-soldiers but the main thing we know about them is that they are considered to be heroes and have a lot of rewards from the government. However, we do not know anything about the mental state of ex-soldiers, their real life after war, their feelings and thoughts. In order to learn about it, it is enough to read the Chapter 15 of Tim O'Brien’s book called “Speaking of Courage” that tells about a war veteran who returned home and instead of being respected and supported has to adjust to peaceful life without having any help from his friends and relatives. In the story “Speaking of Courage” the author tells us about the sorrow and isolation of Vietnam soldier, Norman Bowker by name. The person has serious inner conflict: he can’t overcome the feeling of shame connected with his friend’s death, when he could not safe his life. He could not safe his friend and failed to get the silver star, the desirable reward. Norman Bowker had several rewards, but he was sure that the absence of this one testifies about the lack of heroism. He can’t forget the war and his shit experience that remains with him and could not let him live and enjoy the life after he returned home from war: He knew shit. It was his specialty. The smell, in particular, but also the numerous varieties of texture and taste. Someday he'd give a lecture on the topic. Put on a suit and tie and stand up in front of the Kiwanis club and tell the fuckers about all the wonderful shit he knew. Pass out samples, maybe (163). He could taste it. The shit was in his nose and eyes...and the stink was everywhere - it was inside him, in his lungs - and he could no longer tolerate it...he lay still and tasted the shit in his mouth. (168)  In the story we see the soul of a veteran, the soul of a person who went through the war that changed him and made isolated from peaceful life. It seems that the people who came back home from war and remained alive, should be happy and grateful to their destiny. However, in reality, everything is much more difficult: the war changes the personality so much that the soldier is not able to return to the real life. “[The town] had no memory, therefore no guilt....It did not know shit about shit, and did not care to know" (pg. 143). The soldier is not an ordinary person who lives in the society pursuing his goals, implementing projects, having his own healthy and beautiful dreams. He is a soldier who is different from others, his head is full of thoughts, which are quite different from the thoughts of people, who did not go through war: his friend’s death was awful and he considers himself to be guilty: "There was a knee. There was an arm...There were bubbles where Kiowa's head should've been...He was folded in with the war; he was part of the waste" (168, 172). Being isolated, Norman Bowker still needs somebody to talk to. He is terribly confused by his war experience and wants to share his thoughts with somebody: "If Sally had not been married, or if his father were not such a baseball fan, it would have been a good time to talk" (160). The woman he loved is now married, his best friend is dead, his own father does not care about the fact that his son got seven medals. Unluckily, the only thing he can do is to talk to himself in order to find the answers to many painful questions and this inner conversation makes him suffer more. At last he stopped making any attempts to talk with somebody himself: “On his third day home he’d seen her out mowing the lawn, still pretty in a lacy red blouse and white shorts. For a moment he’d almost pulled over, just to talk, but instead he’d pushed down hard on the gas pedal” (159). His inner world became the place of conversations and controversies, which brought a lot of pain to Bowker. It is not that Bowker does not want to stop thinking about the horror of war and start normal life. He wants to do that very much, he tries to remain calm, tries to save his mind, to rid himself of bad thoughts and sorrow. However, it is not an easy task to forget such events. Conclusion Notwithstanding that “The Things They Carried” generated much commentary, it was recognized that the author made a great contribution to the literature about Vietnam War. The genre of the writing is actively discussed by critics; “The Things They Carried” is considered to be a composite novel, not a collection of stories, some critics even talk about it as about a continuation of the previous two works of the author: “If I Die in a Combat Zone” written in 1973 and “Going after Cacciato” created in 1978. The writing of O'Brien was compared with many other stories about war, even with Homer's Iliad. Psychologists praised the author’s outstanding ability to depict the traumas as he did it in “Speaking of Courage” representing the suffering of ex-soldier and the difficulties he met after the war. Commentators emphasize O'Brien’s ability to represent his war experiences and consider “The Things They Carried” to be the author’s most proficient work. Works Cited O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway Books, 1998 Read More