Tim O'Brien's “ The Things They Carried” is a work of fiction but throughout the novel there is a blend of truth and fiction. The novel is a collection of twenty two stories interrelated stories that speak of the author’s experience in the Vietnam war. By including fiction as well as the comments of the characters in his stories,O’Brien presents an ambiguous story about war. He says that war and its experiences cannot be generalized and there is so much more to it than heroism, courage, fear, death and pain. Especially in the story, “How to tell a True War story” O’Brien through the narrator and Sanders establishes that there are truths to storytelling, no absolutes even in the case of a war story. What makes the story true war story is the visceral reaction of the audience to the details in the story. The combination of truth, facts, fiction and storytelling in the novel makes it much more real than what exactly happened in the battlefield. The reader is no longer able to look at the war in a generalized manner. War and its sufferings cannot be generalized. It is painful but as the characters show, it can be viewed through different eyes to make the truth more palatable and agreeable. O’Brien’ s notion of truth might be unsettling because it is not the complete truth. The narration is not authentic and is not told entirely through the experiences of the people who were part of the war. Yet the story is true in the way it affect those who listen to it and those who have witnessed it. War and stories about it cannot be seen as black and white and neither can it be generalized. The nuances of storytelling and the details affect the reader profoundly in many ways and that is what matters.
In the novel, O’Brien blurs the line between truth and fiction in different ways. When a woman tells him that although she had liked the story but wished it wasn’t a war story, O’Brien says that he wishes he could have made it a love story but cannot do so and hence would keep continuing to make up more details in order to add more truth to the story. In chapter 16, ‘Good Form’, O’Brien says, “I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth ( O’Brien 176).” O’Brien says he fought in the war but that other details in the story are made up. He says that he did not throw a grenade at anyone although he was there, but admits that even that was made up. He makes up these details so he can give a face to how he actually feels about what had happened there. Through these details he comes to terms with his feelings of fear and guilt as well as shows the reader what it feels to be in there and that's what stories are for. The happening-truth, to say it as it happened, he says, is sometimes less truer than the story truth. With these details, the reader understand much more of what really goes on in war and the mind of a soldier. Death is no longer a statistic. It affects the soldier in many ways and through the details or ‘story-truth’ O’Brien brings it out. Although the narration is not exactly authentic, O’Brien says that everything is true. Even though the readers know they are reading a work of fiction, the author says that there is truth to it. This brings metafictional elements into the novel. In, “How to tell a War Story”, O’Brien confesses that he has told the same story many times and in many versions. He says, "This one does it for me. I've told it before--many times, many versions--but here's what actually happened" (O'Brien 78). He admits that there is an element of fiction added to the story each time he tells a different version but still says here is what actually happened. The truth in the narration is being tested by the author. He affirms that the story is true and the reader believes it because the author says so. O’Brien constantly challenges the reader to see what is true and what he wants the readers to believe to be true. O’Brien also says that a true war story is all about the gut instinct. When it is analyzed and generalized, there is no feeling in the stomach and for it to be true, the feeling must be in the stomach and that something has to turn inside. O’brien adds details to his stories so he can accurately describe to the readers what really happened there. The significance of the event is much more real than just a statistic or a number. Even though the exact event is not being described the reader can understand the significance of what had really happened. Although the characters in the novel are not real, the experiences are true, something the soldiers who fought the war would understand. By using story truths, O’Brien recreates the Vietnam war for outsiders. It is no longer a war in which America lost many men but is a war which affected the soldiers in different ways. The reader is forced to look at a soldier as an individual who had undergone tremendous pain and not just as a number in history books. O’Brien says that a true war story is not moralistic. He says, "A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done" (O'Brien 68). War is not something that should be glorified and should not be used as a tool to showcase the heroism and sacrifice of the soldiers. Rather O’Brien makes the reader see the war as something that is miserable and brutal. He makes the reader look at war for its destructive power. Through the stories the readers understand that there can be no justification for war and that it a space where men do what they have always done.
O’Brien shows that a storyteller has the power to shape the reader's opinion just as war has the power to change the soldier’s opinion on what is right and wrong. When Lemon dies, O’Brien decides to tell his story as a love story. Although he decided to make it a love story, O’Brien gives the gory details of the blast that kills Lemon and spreads his body parts on the tree. O’Brien and Jensen are tasked with bringing the body of Lemon down. This event is traumatic for O’Brien. He writes, “I remember pieces of skin and something wet and yellow that must’ve been the intestines (O’brien 79).” However O’Brien chooses to focus on the sunlight and not the carnage. The way he describes the process of fetching Lemon’s body from the tree sounds very detached. It feels as though such events are a daily occurrence and that the narrator is not affected by it. But when the narrator turns it into a love story and decides to focus on the sunlight and not the blood and flood strewn around him, it shows that he used this technique to get over the trauma. By looking at it this way, he turns the experience into a salve for the pain he had undergone. Death is not a simple matter to the soldier even though he or she might come across it multiple times in the line of duty. The soldiers lose their sense of right and wrong as it is a struggle to stay alive mostly. Through a different story telling, the reader also understands that war and death are not simple matters, They hear O’Brien’s version of Lemon’s death and understand how it affects him and the way he tries to accept it.
According to O’Brien, a true war story is a true telling of the evil and obscenity of war and that this quality makes normal notions of war such as courage and heroism obsolete. Rat Kiley is pained by the death of Lemon and writes a letter to Lemon’s sister about the heroic death of her brother and what a brave person he was. Lemon’s sister however does not reply to his letter. Instead of a heartwarming ending to the story of Lemon, the readers are left with a sense of loss. Kiley is enraged at the lack of a response to his letter and calls Lemon’s sister a “Dumb Cooze”. This anger is not specifically towards Lemon’s sister. The anger is misplaced. Kiley is rather angry at the war and his own inability to deal with Lemon’s death. By calling the sister names, he tries to shift the blame. Through this incident O’Brien shows how war is not about incidents of bravery or sacrifice, rather it is about the inability of soldiers to deal with the atrocities that they have witnessed. By adding details to the story, O’Brien sensitizes the reader to the war. His characters are as human as they could get. They are scared, vulnerable and have little idea on how to deal with the brutality of war.
A true war story according to O’Brien is not an accurate description of what had happened in the war zone. It is never about war but rather the details. He says that you can go on telling a true war story. The elements of fiction in the stories make the reader understand the significance of what really happens in a battle field. War is no longer abstract, an event that happens in a far away place. Through the characters in the novel, the readers experience what war actually is and how it damages everyone involved in it. The truth claims in the novel makes the reader look at the novel not as a piece of fiction but as a true story even though they are clearly aware of the fact that it is a work of fiction. This is unsettling because it is not an accurate portrayal of what had happened. The reader accepts that there are lies untruths in the narration but still accepts it. As O’Brien says, sometimes the story truth is much more real than the happening truth. Although he takes creative license with his storytelling, the story is as real as what happened. Absolute truth is irrelevant when it comes to a war story. It is the details that make the stomach react that matters and that is unsettling for the reader.
Works Cited
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Mariner Books. 2009.
