Tim OBriens The Things They Carried Essay Example for Free

Tim OBriens The Things They Carried Essay Introduction There is a thin line between fact and fiction.   This is particularly true in Tim O’Brien’s THE THINGS THEY CARRIED.   Tim O’Brien expertly dealt with words as he described the atrocities of war in this book. Tim OBriens The Things They Carried goes beyond the usual fare of war fiction. As a matter of fact it goes beyond fiction despite the fact that the author labeled it as a work of fiction on the title page.    The book is an amalgamation of several genres – a memoir, a novel, and a collection of short stories. O’Brien’s genius lies in the fact that he turns fiction into something real so much so that the demarcation of fiction and fact in this story is hardly noticeable. You can never tell when the fact ended and the imagination begins.   There is a subtle intertwining of fact and fiction that hooks the reader into reading further.    The story may be fiction but the emotions, tragedies and lives behind the story are real. So real in fact, anybody can relate to them. I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth. Chapter 18, pg. 179. This is a telling part of the story as Tim O’Brien relates how he wants the truth to come out not as the way other people seen it but the way he does.   His own version of the truth is what matters to him. Truly, facts could sometimes be stranger than fiction. Analysis The first-person narrator of this book is named after the author, Tim OBrien.   Tim is both a writer and combat veteran of the Vietnam War. The war fiction is not about the usual war story where gory tales of hatcheted bodies and non-stop killings abound. Instead, one finds a certain attachment to the characters as O’Brien skillfully narrates the emotional and psychological impact of war on them.   OBrien shows the true nature of the soldiers of the Vietnam War not as fearless soldiers but as young men and boys who are inexperienced and frightened in a strange land.   Even O’Brien is not spared from fear of going to war. My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame. Chapter 4, pg. 52. In this part of the story, Tim contemplated on how he was indecisive about being drafted for the war.   The character Tim OBrien reacts to his draft notice by going to the Canadian border and spends six days in a isolated lodge in the company of an old man named Elroy while he debates on whether he should evade the draft or accept it and go to war. In the end, he decided to go to war not so much he believes in it but more so because he does not want to put his family to shame. It is largely compelling, emotional and even humorous.   It gives a human face to the war as opposed to a mere narrative. OBrien explores the things they carried both figuratively and literally through the intermittent narration of the lives, even death, of the soldiers comprising the Alpha Company. OBrien masterfully recounts the emotions going through a soldier during unforgettable moments of his life: his feelings when drafted, his guilt when forced to kill an enemy, his shock at seeing friends or fellow soldiers killed in action and the gnawing feeling of homesickness. The plot is simple but told several times through different characters point of view, making it appear more complex than it seems. The book has its light and humorous moments though as depicted in the story the Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.   O’Brien, the author, knows exactly the perfect order of stories to attain the best effect, whether as a stand-alone story or to augment other stories.   Tim has a way of relating stories that catches the reader by surprise like this one: Speaking of Courage was written in 1975 at the suggestion of Norman Bowker, who three years later hanged himself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown in central Iowa. (Page 155) Love is one of the motivating factor for Tim’s need to tell the story. It had all the shadings and complexities of mature adult love, and maybe more, because there were not yet words for it, and because it was not yet fixed to comparisons or chronologies or the ways by which adults measure such things. I just loved her. Chapter 22, pg. 228. Tim O’Brien, the character professes his love for a girl when they were little. In the end, Tim admitted that his penchant for telling stories and why he needs to do it as he relates his life to the soldiers.   Im skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmys life with a story. Chapter 22, pg. 246. In this quote, Tim tells of his need to tell stories. He knows it can bring the dead loved ones back to life, as if they are still with us. The soldiers do this to shield them from painful memories of losing a friend or killing a person. Tim, the character, tells stories since he was a child, when he lost the first girl he ever loved to brain tumor. The stories may change –characters, places, and events but the storyteller keeps the memories alive. These multiple narratives seem complex even at times confusing but OBrien once again manages to pull this off perfectly. â€Å"The Things They Carried† is a moving, heart-rending tale of the men in Vietnam War and the emotional and psychological baggage they carried, which leave them scarred for life, because of it. Work Cited: O’Brien, Tim. 29 Dec. 1998. The Things They Carried. Amazon. Accessed on 10, January 2007 http://www.amazon.com/Things-They-Carried-Tim-OBrien/dp/0767902890.