The Things They Carried

This was a comforting read for someone who loves writing (as I do), as Tim O'Brien details his thoughts about why storytelling is important. He writes, “Stories will save us” (213), explaining how using the imagination can offer warmth that does not always happen in reality. One of the novel's shorter pages, The Things They Carried, struck me as the most interesting. The chapter titled 'Good Form' explains why O'Brien's character, Tim O'Brien, combines fact and fiction in his novels. “I want you to feel the same way I did. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” (171) According to the novel, stories and imagination create an “illusion of aliveness” (218) which is why they’re important to tell. Just like in the novel, they can be a mix of both fact and fiction as long as the desired outcome is reached, which in this novel was to comfort O’Brien through the pain the war brought him. O’Brien only writes of war stories not because he’s obsessed with retelling the events that took place, but because when he lets his imagination spin into his stories he is able to find meaning in the morality of war and he can revisit the friends and innocence he lost (O'Brien).

I enjoyed the concept of reading a story within a story because in parts of the novel O’Brien spoke directly to the reader, which I feel helped a lot in understanding the theme of the book.

Concepts within the work

The novel by Tim O’Brien carries a plethora of levels of truth. One of the most appealing characteristics of the novel is the use of the storytelling. The storytelling method is widely used as a means of communication. Moreover, the storytelling is applied as a method of therapy rather than a style of giving facts. In the event of communication of the war stories, O’Brien finds it worthy to use the storytelling as an important communication of the human emotions.

O’Brien style of writing that involves the storytelling vividly puts the ideas, the readers can easily grasp the events and hence relate the facts and the events. However, the author differentiates the truth and fiction by inserting the reminders within the stories; the reminders are not facts but enable the audience to understand the human emotions being represented via storytelling (O'Brien).

O’Brien contradicts himself between the truth and fiction to create a sense of the sentimental storytelling technique. He uses the technique to capture the reader and evoke mental pictures as well as human emotions. In the story “Good Form,” O’Brien claims to have seen a man dead man, on one side he says he killed the man. He imagines that Kathleen asked him if he has ever killed anyone, in his imaginations he is sayings, yes, yet still in his envisions he says no. When the reader is almost convinced of his character, O’Brien switches to a fictional side; he states that even though his stories are fictional, taking them fictional could also be fictional. Therefore his work is mixed up with truth and fiction. The two concepts are entwined in a supportive manner that keeps the reader always seeking to separate them. However, there is the reality in his stories; the Vietnam stories outline a specific time in history. However, the facts that O’Brien was once a soldier and has killed people remain halfway balanced between fiction and truth. He emphasized on creating the emotions of how it feels to kill someone. However, the details on whether killing occurred or not is a matter of scarce concern.

Similarities among the concepts

In all the concepts of truth, reality, and fiction, O’Brien takes center stage as the main actor. He communicates directly with the readers as if the audience is listening to him. Moreover, he uses imagination and figurative language. In all the concepts, he speaks with certainty and makes the reader believe that everything he says is facts. O’Brien evokes human emotions in his writing where the reader gets the senses of anger, hate as well as aggressiveness. The reader is taken through a trail of emotions concerning the war, helplessness, sadness, nostalgia, as well as vengeance, are triggered into the readers’ mind.

Differences among the concepts

The reality of the war, the facts and fiction are tied to the same idea of O’Brien as a foot soldier as well as a young man. O’Brien claims to have seen a man dying in a train. The event occurred near My Khe village, and O’Brien claims that he blames himself for being there. He vividly remembers the saddening face of the dying man (O'Brien). However, the concept of the dying man changes into having seen numerous dead bodies. Moreover, he talks about being a young man when he witnessed the dead bodies; he blames himself for ‘faceless responsibility.' O’Brien states that he feels grief for having no courage; maybe he should have helped the dying man. O’Brien, therefore, contradicts himself; one cannot know if he was a foot soldier or a young man. It is not clear if one person ore scores of people died. Moreover, the reader cannot easily depict if he was responsible for the death of the man by negligence or by the act.

Juxtaposition of time and theme development

Kathleen, O’Brien’s daughter, is taken as a typical audience in the story “Good Form.” The event of his killing and his feelings of killing somebody are juxtaposed to create the imagery that brings about the gravity of the issues. Having Kathleen as his daughter evokes a higher sense of emotions within his work, the readers are lifted up to higher standards of reading between the lines. The high emotions are utilized to develop the extent of the readers’ appreciation of the storytelling as a method of communication.

The juxtaposition of the times and evens is relevant in bringing about the theme of the story. The truth of the story is understood easily such as the age of the dead man as about twenty years. The body of the dead man appeared dainty as well as slim. The position of the body was in the center of a clay road in the My Khe village. The dead man’s appearance and the narration of the story to Kathleen creates a plot that ensures that the readers’ feelings of empathy, anger, sadness, hopelessness, as well as quilt, are triggered. The reader is positioned to move with the story and assimilate the real situation as well as the fiction creativity of the author (O'Brien).



Work Cited

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990. Print.