The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien - Essay Example

The book tells us about a soldier of the Vietnam War, trying to communicate with the common people to tell them about the hardships and sufferings he went through during the war. This communication convinces the reader about one thing: that a true war story is much more different from war stories shown in Hollywood movies and in fictional and non-fictional novels. What media shows on television is much more different from true war stories. Glamorized stories of soldiers and what they went through as shown in films and dramas do not show us what actually they had to face, what made them laugh, what made them cry, how they felt when they kept hungry for days, and how they missed their loved ones. Even true stories other than war are different as they do not lead us to true emotions as experienced by a soldier who sleeps on heated sand and stays hungry for days. This makes true war stories very much different from other true stories shown in media.

For Tim O’Brien, true war stories are exceptional also because he thinks that war stories tell such experiences that are hard for the reader or the listener to separate from what seems to have happened in real; that is, what happened, in reality, seems to be happening right there, right in front of you. One can feel the bombs exploding and people dying. A true war story is more unusual than the normal experiences of common people. Also, war stories are exceptional because there are some elements that are too unbearable for the reader or listener to believe, and some elements are too normal for them to believe too. It all depends on the reader or listener how much space he gives to the war story in his belief system. War stories cannot be told in abstract, nor can they be generalized. Every story is different and hard to tell. These elements are what make true war stories different and exceptional for the narrator of ‘The Things They Carried.’

In short, Tim O’Brien thinks that war is not less than hell described in words, and it all depends on the person and how much he is ready to believe in the war story. For him, a true war story is different and exceptional because it contains real emotions and experiences of men fighting for their country. What they go through can never be understood, especially if the experiences are told in words to people who have no idea what war actually is. Read More