The Things They carried by Tim O'Brien is a story regarding a soldier who takes part in the Vietnam War. O’Brien is the narrator. The story has various themes regarding the war and a bunch of soldiers of an American platoon. One of the dominant themes is death among the soldiers. In the introductory part of the narrative, the author provides a description of the major characters by describing the things that they carry. His description of the characters goes from the physical objects to emotional expressions. He states thus, “they carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die, grief, terror, love, longing-” (O’Brien 20).
The narrator relates his personal tales regarding his life before joining the platoon, during the war, and after the war. He provides information that he has never told anyone regarding the way he had planned to run away to Canada in order to avoid the draft that would eventually see him be caught in the confusion of the Vietnam War. Accordingly, he spent his summer working in a meat packaging factory before reporting to the army. He tells of how one day he had left his work at the factory early and drove towards Canada. He further divulges how he had devised a plan at a fish lodge where he had stopped to rest.
O’Brien tells of how the owner of the lodge had helped him confront his fears and his issues regarding the draft by accompanying him to the edge of the lake that lies at the Canadian border. Eventually, O’Brien gives in to what he refers to as societal pressures to follow the notions of courage, duty, and obligation thereby returning home instead of proceeding to Canada. A confirmation of O’Brien’s doubts about whether to go for the war is seen when he says, “I remember staring at the old man, then at my hands, then at Canada” (53). In the course of the story, O’Brien reveals that he considers himself a victim of failure of his convictions and ultimately a coward for participating in a war that he did not have confidence in.
Though O’Brien’s attempt to escape in order to avoid being drafted to go to the war is an act of cowardice, his subsequent actions of going back home, confronting his fears of the draft, and proceeding to join the army platoon in Vietnam are acts of courage. Further, he provides a constant analysis of and comments regarding the manner in which tales are narrated. For instance, he provides the story relating to the death of Cult Lemon and proceeds to examine and describe why the story has connotations of certainty. He believes that the facts leading to Cult Lemon’s death are not important and that the important thing is whether the story creates emotional implications to an audience. O’Brien opines that if the story has emotional effects to a listener or a reader, the emotion is the true aspect of the story. O’Brien believes that even the soldiers who do not believe the stories that people tell regarding Vietnam are interested in the stories all the same.
O’Brien’s memory of the death of his friend Kiowa, a gentle Native American with whom O’Brien had forged a strong connection, is recurrent in the mind of the narrator. This is evidenced by the fact that the sight of Kiowa’s passing away henceforth becomes a basis for various scenes in the novel. Such scenes include “in the field”, “Speaking of Courage”, “Notes”, and “Field Trip”. While narrating each of the foregoing scenes, O’Brien describes the vivid memory of what transpired and gradually reiterates his condemnation regarding what he perceives as a wasteful war. This shows an element of cowardice, he is too eager to have the war concluded so that he is not “wasted” like the dead soldiers.
Accordingly, in his “Speaking of Courage” the narrator provides a story that he has written regarding a Vietnam friend by the name of Norman Bowker. O’Brien presents Bowker as having difficulties adjusting to the life of a civilian having returned home from Vietnam. He compares the challenges that Bowker experiences with his own ease at adopting to the daily life routines in graduate school. At the end, O'Brien describes the way Bowker requests him to write about the difficulties that veterans go through while trying to readjust to the civilian life due to the powerful feelings of survivor guilt. This fictional tale justifies O'Brien’s reservations regarding the Vietnam War. As such, although he eventually participates in the war, his cowardice is seen throughout the narrative.
Ultimately, O'Brien recalls a girl from his infancy who had died from cancer. She was the first body he saw. He describes the way as a boy he would vision her alive, see, and talk to her. He realizes that his ability to animate the girl in his vision and his writing regarding the Vietnam War are all stories that are geared towards saving his life. As such, one can conclude that indeed O'Brien is a coward because all the vignettes in the novel are aimed at overcoming his fear of death. This is also evidenced by O'Brien’s statement while describing the soldiers where he states thus, “They carried the common secret of cowardice” (20). Being a soldier himself, O’Brien is cowardly and provides descriptions and vignettes as a way to try to shun his cowardice.
Work Cited
O’Brien, T. The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009.
