The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien

It is a hotly contested idea that just one war-themed book can adequately discuss the topic of Vietnam, and this idea is properly portrayed in this book. Fellow authors like Renny Christopher have condemned Tim O'Brien's story for paying more attention to the misery of the American soldiers and less interest in the Vietnamese. However, the core of "The Things They Carried," O'Brien's work is distinct.

Another author, Heberle, who wrote "A Trauma Artist," based his work on how aggression has impacted on American politics, society and culture. Similarly, O'Brien's work also focuses on the distressing experiences endured by the American soldiers. "The Things They Carried" is popularly seen as one of the best written books on American life after the sufferings of the war (M. Heberle).

However, what exactly makes the Vietnam War distinct compared to other wars which America fought in? What brought about an American victory in the Vietnam War? Was the enemy not as equipped and strong as the American military? In his story, O'Brien makes a case for a greater commendation of the brave men of the American force for their heroic feats during the war.

Is O'Brien also of the opinion that the courageous acts of the soldiers should be the main point of interest? The conditions in which O'Brien and his fellow brothers-in-arms in Vietnam lived and the little regard for human life are the most evident themes in the story. A Working Class War The book's title is in agreement with one of the major theories that O'Brien postulates. The soldiers in the book carry a lot of stuff.

Guns, ammunition, food, water, survival gear, personal gear including comics, sweets and letters from loved ones left behind at home, make up the physical load carried by the soldiers. However, they are more burdened by the emotional and psychological load of visions, goals, past nightmares and future aspirations. But with whom do they battle with this time? Most of them are youths who have been coerced into joining the war. A large number of them hailed from middle-class and pitiable families.

Perhaps no other twentieth-century war in American history has involved such a number of middle-class citizens as the war of Vietnam. Organizations in charge of recruitment into the military drafted the middle-class children into the army while their more affluent mates attended college. Most youths from affluent and famous backgrounds were left out of the recruitment and only a very small number came forward. Therefore, one of America's most disliked conflicts was fought mostly by the teenage kids of factory workers, drivers, secretaries, wood-workers etc.

(Appy 252) The conventional norms of war were not followed in Vietnam, firstly the enemy didn't pose any form of danger to the Americans, the reason for the war wasn't clear and even the American people were split between supporting the government and expressing empathy towards the armed forces. Combining these with the fabrications of the media, which set up a campaign of deceit, propaganda and falsification of evidence, the U.S. Government and the Military successfully created a mental image of Vietnam and the threat it poses.

However, when the past and the future meet, even the truth gets diluted with a generally accepted belief and thoughts of disturbing accounts get tougher to extract. Explaining the War O'Brien'sbook talks about the burden the soldiers bear daily. These soldiers went through a lot with a lot of responsibility on their shoulders. O'Brien believes that this weight the soldiers bear is what advances them as it's only by pushing our bounds we get to know how much we can achieve.

These youthful soldiers bear a lot with the smallest of their burdens being the weight of their equipment. A number of these men crack under the burden while others bear it with grace and survive. "This was the wrong time and place. You needed everything you had to stay alive, and doing drugs wasn't one of them. If you were doing drugs, you could get shot out in the field during a fire fight or maybe get the whole squad killed" (de Groot 268).

The Viet Cong had to employ a new strategy in the Vietnam War after a firsthand experience of the terrible weapons the Americans owned. They employed a tactic called "hugging" on the American soldiers to prevent them from using their jets and heavy artillery. This swift change in tactic showed the tactical elasticity and ready-to-learn nature of the Viet Cong in sharp contrast to their American counterparts (Nagl 224).

Notwithstanding the overhyped supremacy of American technology in terms of equipment and intelligence, the Viet Cong obviously dictated the conditions of the battle. The American troops wasted large amounts of time looking for the Vietnamese who in most cases determined when and where the battles were fought. A large number of American soldiers who were killed during the Vietnamese War were victims of enemy mines, tripwires and surprise attacks (Appy 252).

One of the individuals talked about in the book goes by the name Kiowa.He is a Native American, O'Brien's closest pal and arguably the most jovial soldier on the Alpha squad. Despite his many battles against the Viet Cong, he doesn't abhor any form of hate for them unlike his other companions. He tries to help the other soldiers in his company get rid of their hate as well and to be at peace with themselves. Sadly, Kiowa is killed when he gets buried in sewage.

Kiowa's demise says it all about the pointless disasters of war. Kiowa dies without any form of grace, drowning after getting submerged under the filth of a sewage field which his lieutenant, Jimmy Cross, has his reservations over. Kiowa's totally immersed corpse is symbolic of the fleeting nature of life and the shocking swiftness with which it can be lost. Kiowa's death is devoid of any form of nobility, he simply adds to the number of unidentified bodies which is characteristic of wars.

Azar, another character in O'Brien's book, is not a friendly guy in any way.He is ruthless, harsh and a dangerous playmate, as if that wasn't enough, he kills a puppy with a bomb. Characterization and the Trauma Effect The distinct reaction to the horrible occurrences termed Trauma is instant and lasts a long while. Confronted with unexpected, hostile and intolerable situations, the victims may lose consciousness, run mad or even disable their own bodies to stay alive.

However a delayed reaction mostly at least one month's duration called post-traumatic stress disorder could be more dangerous and it is accompanied by several repeats of the initial reactions to the horrible happenings albeit in more complex and difficult manners. Signs of lasting trauma are complicated, myriad and their similarity with signs of certain personality problems and even schizophrenia has caused numerous misdiagnoses (M. A. Heberle). A perfect example of the influence of trauma is the character Jimmy Cross, a young, learned officerwho has serious psychological problems.

When not fantasizing about a young woman back home, he is filled with self-reproach as he considers himself as a major cause of the death of a number of the soldiers in his squad. Jimmy Cross can be considered as a person with a Christ character. When faced with bizarre brutality, particular men elect to sacrifice themselves for their squad. These men undergo pain and torment to ensure others do not need to suffersimilar suffering.

Cross is similar to Christ not just because they have similar initials or because their stories include mentions of the cross, but in the role he plays in the book, the role of undergoing torment on behalf of his fellow soldiers just like Christ, who undergoes pain for mankind. Shaping The Story O'Brien employs the tool of literature as a form of comfort and a way of getting accustomed to the horrible events he experienced as a soldier.

His words imply that though he has made a success from writing and that his outpouring of memory via storytelling has helped him cope in society, he still strongly holds the opinion that certain experiences are simply unexplainable. What he believes is that every soldier enters this setting of fear, hazard, boredom and dread a mind-set that has been developed from 18 years of education in America about the responsibility of the fighter, about success, dignity and fearlessness, education received via family tales, movies, On Air Personalities etc. (Wells).

O'Brien attempts to comprehend and expose grey areas of the war by simulating how they might have played out. In the first chapter of the book, O'Brien acquaints us with a number of the various things the infantry soldiers carried through the wilderness of Vietnam including those that are material, psychological, real and unreal. O'Brien's book also features a number of information about the war while equally provoking opinions from stories from the war in the book.

O'Brien states certain war details and then later questions these same details, creating doubt in the readers' minds. He equally recounts war events and later declares that these same events might have happened or not, by doing this, he makes the reader appreciate how much effect literature could have on everyday life and the thoughts of a common man (Kaplan).

Although The Things They Carried is a work of fiction and not a real account of events, the unreal stories and occurrences stated in the book may be seen as extracts from the author's recollection of the war. Emotional studies have revealed that though our memories tell stories of our past actions, they also go a long way in shaping both our current and later deeds as well.

Thus, the trend evident in the plot of O'Brien's book can be analysed based on the various applications of event recollection we have been studying (Hassebrock and Boyle). Conclusion No list of literature on the subject of Great War fiction is complete without mentioning O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," which is one of the best books written about the Vietnam War. However, O'Brien's book does not really follow the rules of war fiction to the letter.

Firstly, the book contains too little real battle stories though this also increases its authenticity. When recounting his war involvement, O'Brien states that he came across just one enemy fighter in a whole year. However, the possibilities of getting killed are very high even when not attributed to a particular person. Hidden gunmen, stray bullets, land bombs and many other dangers are equally capable of killing as well as a real human enemy. O'Brien stresses the less significant aspects of Kiowa's demise in a continuation of the.