Set in the Vietnam war, based off his own experience and that of others, Tim O’Brien perfectly portrayed the life of a Vietnam soldier and his platoon, inside and out of combat. O’Brien breaks down human nature into a raw form, on which he bases his stories of what love is, the things they carried, what war is, what they were afraid of, what they knew, and what they could never forget. Tim O’brien almost kept a constant base style throughout the book, but with each story he changed the tone with word choice and content to bring out its true meaning and relation to human nature as a whole, as well as how war changes men forever. O’brien brings out the emphasis on his points in each story but constructing long, paragraph sized lists, followed by short, to the point sentences that sum up or end the paragraph. A perfect example would be in the very first short story of his book, in his description of only a portion of the things they carried, both physical and psychological, where he sums up in a single sentence that takes up almost half a page, how not only do they carry their physical gear, but their ghosts as well. O’briens writing style stays throughout just about all the stories, but the tone changes in each one. In “The Things They Carried,” the first short story of the book, the tone is descriptive, as it starts out describing First Sergeant jimmy Cross and his love life, it goes into listing the physical things they carried, like his 2.9 pound pistol or his 3.5 pound antipersonnel mine. as the chapter progresses, it the tone becomes insightful, relating to the main idea that war changes a man forever, as well as war brings out true human nature. The insightful feel of the end of this chapter comes from O’briens description of the non physical things they carried: “They all carried ghosts . . . . they carried themselves.” Aside from the sentimentality of the reality of the soldiers situation, the description of SGT Cross’ “dense, crushing love” for Martha brings the reader into Cross’ mind.
O’briens book was based around the lives of a platoon of soldiers and some of their individual stories, each one relating back to the main ideas of the text and helping the reader understand the author's purpose. War changes a man forever could be easily tied into each of the stories in The Things They Carried , but easiest of all “Speaking Of Courage” and several of its following chapters tie into both ideas, war changes a man forever and war brings out true human nature. “Speaking of courage” tells the post- war story of Norman Bowker, who several weeks after writing O’brien to write this piece, hung himself, which truly brought the reader back to think about the chapter and its meaning. While driving around the lake of his home town (post war), Bowker goes into deeply detailed flashbacks of the war, thinking of how he could have come up with the courage to save Kiowa in the shit field, how he could have come up with the courage to talk to his dad about it, how he could have come up with the courage. After we are explicitly told Bowker has driven around the lake 11 times, you start to realize that the war has quite obviously altered Bowkers state of mind, it has changed him as a man. O’brien explains to us in the following chapters that Bowker had wrote to him, saying he “just drives around town all day and can't think of a place to go, and wouldn't know how to get there anyway,” how “he’d write it, but can never find words.” O’brien explicitly tells us how he took pride in being the only one who he kept in contact with who ‘easily made the shift from war to peace.” Just by the way O’brien describes Bowker’s actions, his thoughts, his inability to even order fast food without having flashbacks, we can tell that war had changed him.
O’Brien develops the central ideas of his novel not only with his multiple characters, but with his constant writing style and constantly changing tone. By using his same style with all the stories, O’Brien effectively tied in the main ideas to all of them, but changed the style using word choice and description of characters thoughts to emphasize or bring out certain points of each story. In the first short story we can see the things they carried, project an image from O’Briens in depth descriptions of size and weight of physical things, as well as the mental load of the non physical things they carried. In “How to Tell a True War Story,” O’Brien uses his a mixed style of long sentences describing how to tell a story, mixed with short, emotional flashbacks to emphasize why hes telling how to tell a war story. In this short story, he basically tells us how he wrote his book, which leaves it almost all up to us to imply why he wrote it, but still slightly guiding us towards the central ideas: war changes a man forever and war brings out true human nature.
O’Brien used style, tone, characters, and explicit information to show us why he was writing the book, but left it up to us to imply and define those ideas for ourselves. We can tell from O'Brien's experience in the war as well as his recollections and constant reminiscing on his many dead friends that he wants us to know that war changes a man forever, it is inevitable. Although some less than others, it is impossible to avoid the effects of war, whether its injury, mental dehabilitations or even minor tweaks, or death, you can't avoid it. In the short story “The Lives of The Dead,” we can see that war brings out true, raw human nature. Starting the chapter off with a description of O'Brien's “first body,” is brings us straight back to his childhood, where he explains to us this young girl he used to know, that he liked. He almost leaves us hanging without a closer of why she reminded him of the dead, nameless vietnamese man, but he closes with the knowledge that she dies of cancer, and that he still loved her. As he brings us into his memory, we can visualize the idea that war brings out true human nature “trying to imagine what it was like to be dead . . . . i started to cry.” O’Brien shows us that the first thing he thought of when he saw his first dead body of the Vietnam War, was him crying over the dead body of one of his childhood friends, showing us that not only was war changing him already, but that war brings out true, raw human nature.
The Vietnam War was one of the longest wars the US has ever been involved in, as well as one of the most terrible, socially unjust events in our history. Tim O’Brien’s The things They Carried not only informed those unaware of the truth, but altered the perspective of those who did, showing us the reality of the soldier lives in combat, post war, as writers, and even as children. By describing to us the raw brutality of a body, a close friend, exploding up into a tree as if it were a regular occurrence, we can see that not only did the war change Tim O’Brien, but it changed everyone involved in it. O’Brien showed us the truth, the reality of what its like to be a soldier back from war. How impossible it is to fit back into society because all you can do is drive around all day. He showed us the things they carried, the things they feared, the things they loved, and the things they wanted. He not only brought us into a soldier's mind, but revealing their every thought to us, but he showed the the real Vietnam War. 
No comments:
Post a Comment