Final Blog for "The Things They Carried"

After reading the book The Things They Carried, my overall opinion of it is a good one. I liked hearing the various stories O' Brien told. Although some of the stories are definitely not happy ones, I think it is important to know the truth. It is important to hear what really happened during the war. While some of his stories may be more "story-truth" than actual "happening-truth," they give a good idea of what the war was like. I enjoyed reading about O' Brien's experience in the war. If anyone is interested in reading about a war story - and the sometimes sad truth that goes with it - I would recommend this book to them. Even though it is not a happy story, I believe the truth is good to know. "I'm young and happy. I'll never die. I'm 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 Timmy's life with a story" (page 246).

Remembering

"We kept the dead alive with stories" (page 239). Around the camp, soldiers told stories of those that had died. They told stories of Ted Lavender, Curt Lemon, and Kiowa. By telling these stories, they were able to remember - and in a way bring back to life - those who had died. This is the same thing O' Brien does throughout the entire book. Each chapter is a different story about an experience the soldiers went through during the war. O' Brien re-tells these stories as he looks back on his past. It is his way of "keeping the dead alive" by remembering them and writing the stories down. These stories can then be read by numerous others through the years. This continuous reading and story-telling keeps the dead alive because it makes sure that they are always remembered and never forgotten.

Change

People change. They grow up, move away, switch jobs, meet new people, and much more. It is simply part of life, and we cannot stop it. However, part of us never changes. While we may grow older and gain more knowledge along the way, there is a part inside us that will always remain the same. It was inside us when we were children, and it will remain there for the rest of our lives. This is the part that O' Brien mentions in this passage. "I was Timmy then; now I'm Tim. But the essence remains the same...inside the body, or beyond the body, there is something absolute and unchanging. The human life is all one thing, like a blade tracing loops on ice: a little kid, a twenty-three-year-old infantry sergeant, a middle-aged writer knowing guilt and sorrow" (page 236).

Respect

"It was more than mockery. There was a formality to it, like a funeral without the sadness" (page 227). O' Brien says this when talking about how the other soldiers shook hands and proposed toasts to the dead. When I first read this, my thought were similar to those of O' Brien. I thought what they were doing was mocking the dead. I viewed their greetings and toasts as disrespectful like Kiowa said. However, O' Brien explains that disrespect was not the reason he refused to join them. O' Brien refused because seeing the body reminded him of someone from the past. In addition, O' Brien also says what they were doing was more than mockery. In a way, their actions were more like a funeral. They were toasting to the dead man's family, ancestors, and new found life after death. What they were doing could be considered disrespectful. On the other hand, it could also be considered respectful.

Metaphor

"I was down there with him, inside him. I was part of the night. I was the land itself - everything, everywhere - the fireflies and paddies, the moon, the midnight rustlings, the cool phosphorescent shimmer of evil - I was atrocity - I was jungle fire, jungle drums - I was the blind stare in the eyes of all those poor, dead ex-pals of mine - all the pale young corpses, Lee Strunk and Kiowa and Curt Lemon - I was the beast on their lips - I was Nam - the horror, the war" (page 209).

Throughout this passage, O' Brien makes numerous metaphors. He compares himself to various people, places, and things. He is not actually stating that he was these things; he is simply making a comparison. He does this to show how the war has become a part of him and how he has become a part of the war. He has spent so long there that he feels connected to it all. He feels connected to the land, the fighting, and the dead. After everything O' Brien has been through, he believes everything is now a part of him. Therefore, he states "I was..." to show this connection because it emphasizes how the war became a significant part of who he was.

Imagery

"After a while, as the night deepens, you feel a funny buzzing in your ears. Tiny sounds get heightened and distorted. The crickets talk in code; the night takes on a weird electronic tingle. You hold your breath. You coil up and tighten your muscles and listen, knuckles hard, the pulse ticking in your head. You hear the spooks laughing. You jerk up, you freeze, you squint at the dark. Nothing, though. You put your weapon on full automatic. You crouch lower and count your grenades and make sure the pins are bent for quick throwing and take a deep breath and listen and try not to freak. And then later, after enough time passes, things start to get bad" (page 205).

In this passage, O' Brien uses language to evoke a picture of an experience. O' Brien wants to describe the feeling one experiences when on night guard. He wants to demonstrate the fear of the darkness and the sounds of the night. He does this through descriptive language that creates an image of the soldier on guard. He describes the many sounds and the way they affect one's mind when they are alone. O' Brien describes the sensation and reactions to the sounds. The purpose of this passage is to get the reader to better understand the fears soldiers face during night guard.

Anthropomorphism

"The need for revenge kept eating at me" (page 200). O' Brien mentions this when talking about trying to get even with Bobby Jorgenson. After Bobby Jorgenson improperly treated O' Brien's gunshot wound, all O' Brien could think about was revenge. This is what he means when he says this. He does not actually mean he is being eaten by revenge. He means that the thought is consuming his mind, and that is all he can think about. "I even remembered the rage. But I couldn't feel it anymore. In the end, all I felt was that coldness down inside my chest. Number one: the guy had almost killed me. Number two: there had to be consequences" (page 201). O' Brien still remembered what Bobby Jorgenson had done, and now he wanted there to be consequences. O' Brien tried to come up with a way to make Bobby Jorgenson pay.

Aphorism

"I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth" (page 179). O' Brien makes this statement about life. It shows a wise observation about "truth." Sometimes what actually happens is not as true as the story told about what happened. By telling the occurrence in story form, the reader is able to feel the emotion that goes with it. Rather than simply stating the facts, O' Brien puts emotion into the story in order to get the reader's sympathy. The story-truth allows the reader to relate to the characters in a way that would not be possible if only the happening-truth had been told. Although the story-truth does not always tell the events that actually occurred, it is more true in the sense that it shows the true feelings of the soldiers in the story. The story-truth shows the part of the war that O' Brien wanted shown. He wanted the war experience to be shown rather than the actual facts and events that occurred.

"Nobody's fault...everybody's." (page 176)

"When a man died, there had to be blame. Jimmy Cross understood this. You could blame the war. You could blame the idiots who made the war. You could blame Kiowa for going to it. You could blame the rain. You could blame the river. You could blame the field, the mud, the climate. You could blame the enemy. You could blame the mortar rounds. You could blame people who were too lazy to read a newspaper, who were bored by the daily body counts, who switched channels at the mention of politics. You could blame whole nations. You could blame God. You could blame the munitions makers or Karl Marx or a trick of fate or an old man in Omaha who forgot to vote.

In the field, though, the causes were immediate. A moment of carelessness or bad judgement or plain stupidity carried consequences that lasted forever" (page 177).

Although this quote is rather long, I thought it was important to include all of it. By writing the entire quote, it shows the number of people who could be blamed for the war. However, no one actually deserves the blame. It is not one single person's fault for such things; everyone is to blame. It is because of everyone and everything that this happens; not just because of one simple action that was taken. Therefore, the blame cannot be placed on a single person or thing.

After Kiowa's death, the other soldiers began to blame themselves for it. Some of them kept quiet about it, and they just thought to themselves. Others admitted what they had done and how they were to blame for what happened. Norman Bowker felt responsible because he was unable to save Kiowa. First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross felt responsible for setting up camp in the field instead of moving to higher ground for the night. The young soldier felt responsible for turning on his flashlight to show Kiowa a picture. Azar felt guilty for making jokes about his death. Everyone felt as though they were somehow responsible for Kiowa's death, and they should be blamed for it. His death was "nobody's fault...everybody's" (page 176).

Personification

"The rain fell in a cold, sad drizzle" (page 169). O' Brien uses personification by giving emotion to the rain. He does this to emphasize the sad tone of the day. Kiowa died the night before, and now the soldiers were searching for his body. Many of them felt responsible for his death, so they each took the blame upon themselves. They were all sad because they had lost a good soldier and a friend. Kiowa was friends with many of them, and they all felt responsible for either causing his death or not being able to save him. There was a sad tone around the camp that day, so O' Brien portrayed this through personifying the rain.

Re-Thinking

After reading the chapter "Notes" which begins on page 155, it made me completely re-think the previous chapter. "Speaking of Courage," the previous chapter, displayed a day in the life of Norman Bowker after the war. Originally, I thought this chapter was simply showing the day he returned to his hometown and how things had changed. However, the next chapter made me realize that past chapter meant more to Norman Bowker than I had thought. The chapter showed the situation and feelings that he had felt not only on that single day but throughout the rest of his life. After he returned from the war, he did not know where he belonged. The life he had left before the war was no longer the same now. "The thing is, there's no place to go. Not just in this lousy little town. In general. My life, I mean. It's almost like I got killed over in Nam...Hard to describe" (page 156). Norman Bowker did not know what to do now that the war was over. He did not know where to go or what to do. Then, he hung himself. This made me completely re-think that past chapter. It gave new meaning to that Fourth of July that seemed like a simple drive around the lake.

???

So...I ran into a bit of confusion in the chapter "Style" which starts on page 135. The chapter talks about the girl that the soldiers found in a town that had been burned down. The girl looked to be about fourteen, and we learn that her family died when her house burned down. Yet...the girl was dancing? It seems to me like if her whole village had just been destroyed, her house burnt down, and her family killed, then she might be more...concerned? worried? scared? Why was she dancing? I could not think of an answer for this. Henry Dobbins suggests that "The girl just liked to dance" (page 136). I thought maybe it was some sort of ritual or cultural tradition, but maybe she just like to dance? Or, maybe she was just dancing because she could not really comprehend what had just happened? Was she dancing as a way to not focus on the loss of her family, but instead she wanted to just dance and try to ignore it all? Or, maybe it's some kind of symbolism? ...Any ideas or solutions?

Anecdote

In the chapter "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" which begins on page 89, O' Brien tells an anecdote. He tells the brief story of Mary Anne Bell to show the effect war can have on someone. War changes people. Even someone as young and innocent as Mary Anne Bell was able to be transformed by the war. She changed to the point where no one even recognized her - not even Mark Fossie who "had been sweethearts since grammar school" (page 94). She had become involved in the war to the point where she craved more because "she wanted to penetrate deeper into the mystery of herself" (page 114). O' Brien tells this anecdote to prove that war has varying effects on people. "What happened to her was what happened to all of them. You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it's never the same. A question of degree. Some make it intact, some don't make it at all" (page 114).

Juxtaposition

"War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead" (page 80). O' Brien uses this passage to state the various contradictions of war. He shows that war is dangerous and grotesque. However, he also mentions that "you can't help but gape at the awful majesty of combat" (page 80). There are many different views and opinions of war, and most of them seem to contradict one another. This contradiction emphasizes the point O' Brien is trying to make. He wants to show the dangerous, nasty, life-threatening, and violent side of war. In addition, he also wants to show the fun, thrilling, and feeling of achievement one may also gain from the war. War is a very contradictory subject, and O' Brien shows this through the use of juxtaposition in this passage.

A True War Story

"In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen...And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed. In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. It's a question of credibility. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn't, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness" (page 71). We have all heard war stories before. Whether it is a heroic "normal" story or a "crazy" adventurous story, we have all heard one. However, we often find them difficult to believe. Sometimes the "crazy" stories seem simply too unreasonable to possibly be true. The "normal" war stories are often more believable because they are things we expect to hear and picture when we think of war. This is what O' Brien means when he says many people are skeptical about the stories. What seems to be true and what actually is true are not necessarily the same thing.

Simile

"A giddy feeling, in a way, except there was the dreamy edge of impossibility to it - like running a dead-end maze - no way out - it couldn't come to a happy conclusion and yet I was doing it anyway because it was all I could think of to do" (page 47). O' Brien uses this simile to describe when he is driving away from his home. He is leaving to try to escape the war and the draft. He does not agree with the war; thus, he does not want to be a part of it or support it. He tries to leave and drive to Canada. However, he knows that he is doing something that has no way of ending well. He is trapped in a "maze" that he can not escape from. Eventually, he will have to face reality and accept the path before him. A "dead-end maze" only ends one way, and that end is inevitable.

Run

"Run, I'd think. Then I'd think, Impossible. Then a second later I'd think, Run" (page 44). Often in life we are faced with difficult decisions. We must choose between what we are supposed to do and what we would like to do. We must also consider what is the right thing to do. However, the right thing to do, what we would like to do, and what we are supposed to do are often very different things. Sometimes it seems like the easy solution is just to run away and escape from it all. It seems like a good plan - to simply refuse to deal with our problems - but eventually reality catches up with us. We realize that we can not hide from all of our problems. Eventually, we must face the facts and choose a path to take. This is what O' Brien comes to understand. While he would prefer to simply leave his life behind and run away to Canada, he realizes he must go back to his life and face reality.

Rhetorical Question

"The very facts were shrouded in uncertainty: Was it a Civil War? A war of national liberation or simple aggression? Who started it, and when, and why? What really happened to the USS Maddox on that dark night in the Gulf of Tonkin? Was Ho Chi Minh a communist stooge, or a nationalist savior, or both, or neither? What about the Geneva Accords? What about SEATO and the Cold War? What about dominoes?" (page 40). This passage shows the many questions that passed through O'Brien's mind as he thought about the war. He asks these questions; however, he does not intend for them to be answered. He does not actually want to know the answers to these questions. He is simply trying to prove a point. He wants to prove that America is being divided over these numerous issues. He does not understand the reasoning behind this war and why it is costing so many lives. Therefore, he is questioning the reason why he should have to fight for something he disagrees with.

Stories

"Stories are for joining the past to the future" (page 38). I think this statement means that it is important to remember the past in order to understand the future. Things that happened in the past shape the world today and influence the future. As the common saying goes, history repeats itself. From the words of O'Brien, "The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, replaying itself over and over" (page 32). It is important to look at past events in order to prevent them from happening again. By remembering these war stories, we can analyze and discover ways to keep the same thing from happening again. We must learn from our mistakes if we are to have a successful future. "Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story" (page 38). Stories are often passed down through generations, and it is through this passing down that the stories are kept alive. It is important to remember these stories of the past, so we can prepare for our future.

Motif

As I began reading, throughout the first chapter I noticed a single phrase that was repeated numerous times. The phrase "They carried..." is woven throughout the chapter. By repeating this phrase, the author shoes the heavy burden on the shoulders of these soldiers during the Vietnam War. It displays the physical and emotional weight they each had to carry. "What they carried were necessities...partly a function of rank, partly of field specialty...varied by mission" (pages 2, 5, 9). "They all carried ghosts...superstition...each other...diseases...emotional baggage of men who might die" (pages 10, 13, 14). The phrase that especially stood out to me was "They all carried ghosts" (page 10). In addition to the many heavy physical burdens they carried, they were also carrying ghosts. They carried the ghosts of those who they had fought with and lost in battle. Also, they carried the ghosts of those they had left behind at home; they left families, wives, children, and friends knowing that they may never return to see them. "For all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry" (page 16).

Welcome! =)

Welcome to my blog! For this blog I will be reading my way through two novels. First, I will be reading The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Then, the second book is called The Sun Also Rises by Earnest Hemingway. Join me as I read, find, and analyze different aspects of these books. As I said, I am going to start by diving into the first novel by O'Brien. So here goes...