On The Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis
On The Things They Carried Among all of the books I have read, and I have read a lot of books, I believe this one is the most intriguing when it comes to composition. Tim O'Brien, the author, has done what is rare in literature and composed a fictionalized autobiography. He brings together thoughts, ideas, emotions, and reality in order to create his own safe and satisfying reality. He tackles reader and author's perspective and creates a work that deserves to be what The Milwaukee Journal calls “...so powerful it steals your breath”.
By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened, like the night …show more content…
in the shit field, and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain. (O'Brien 152) In the quote above the author helps to explain to the reader why he adds details in his story that are fictional. Throughout the book O'Brien adds specific details in the form of storytelling in order to help convey the emotions that he was really feeling or to help explain others behaviors. By adding these, some would argue that the novel turns into fiction rather than an autobiography/memoir (in fact I found the book in the fiction section in my local library). This brings up the topic of whether writers of autobiographies/memoirs should stick to pure facts. I believe that autobiographies and/or memoirs are constructed using the memories of the facts of the Knight 2 author's life instead of pure fact. Pure fact requires no emotional connection, just the recitation of these facts in the form of words in a book. Using the memories on the other hand requires one to relive the emotions, thoughts, and ideas associated with that memory. If the author is a relatively good writer, those things will be injected into his writing and you will, in turn, get to experience them as a reader. It makes a huge difference to the overall meaning of the book that the authors inject themselves into their writing. Honestly, it would be quite dull to try to read if they didn't.
I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth. (O'Brien 171) An autobiography/memoir is not only the authors perspective and interpretation of his life but also how the reader experiences what the author has written.
Above, O'Brien expresses to the reader that he wants you to feel what he felt. He wants others to understand what happened to him. The author writes for the reader. He also expresses above that story-truth is truer that happening-truth. Story-truth “makes things present”. In the authors words, it allows him to look at things he never looked at. He can attach faces to grief, love, pity and God. He can be brave and he can make himself feel again. In, the end, it allows the author to go back and experience things in a different way that he might not have necessarily wanted to experience again. The author's own perspective and interpretation of his own life is very important also. Without the authors on view on his life, the book would no longer be an autobiography/memoir. It would most likely be based on what others have told him about his life which would cause it to ride the line between fiction and non-fiction. It's all about perspective and interpretation in The Things They Carried. In The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien shares some of his chilling experiences in the Vietnam War using a rather unconventional form. He writes war stories and most of the ones in this Knight
3 book just happen to be fictionalized. In order to make himself “feel again”, he creates what, in his mind, is the truth. He helps readers to decide whether autobiographies/memoirs are pure fact or memories and makes you realize that your experience is just as valuable as his own. He emphasizes the line between story-truth and happening-truth and reveals that story-truth, in fact, can be truer than happening-truth.
By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened, like the night …show more content…
in the shit field, and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain. (O'Brien 152) In the quote above the author helps to explain to the reader why he adds details in his story that are fictional. Throughout the book O'Brien adds specific details in the form of storytelling in order to help convey the emotions that he was really feeling or to help explain others behaviors. By adding these, some would argue that the novel turns into fiction rather than an autobiography/memoir (in fact I found the book in the fiction section in my local library). This brings up the topic of whether writers of autobiographies/memoirs should stick to pure facts. I believe that autobiographies and/or memoirs are constructed using the memories of the facts of the Knight 2 author's life instead of pure fact. Pure fact requires no emotional connection, just the recitation of these facts in the form of words in a book. Using the memories on the other hand requires one to relive the emotions, thoughts, and ideas associated with that memory. If the author is a relatively good writer, those things will be injected into his writing and you will, in turn, get to experience them as a reader. It makes a huge difference to the overall meaning of the book that the authors inject themselves into their writing. Honestly, it would be quite dull to try to read if they didn't.
I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth. (O'Brien 171) An autobiography/memoir is not only the authors perspective and interpretation of his life but also how the reader experiences what the author has written.
Above, O'Brien expresses to the reader that he wants you to feel what he felt. He wants others to understand what happened to him. The author writes for the reader. He also expresses above that story-truth is truer that happening-truth. Story-truth “makes things present”. In the authors words, it allows him to look at things he never looked at. He can attach faces to grief, love, pity and God. He can be brave and he can make himself feel again. In, the end, it allows the author to go back and experience things in a different way that he might not have necessarily wanted to experience again. The author's own perspective and interpretation of his own life is very important also. Without the authors on view on his life, the book would no longer be an autobiography/memoir. It would most likely be based on what others have told him about his life which would cause it to ride the line between fiction and non-fiction. It's all about perspective and interpretation in The Things They Carried. In The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien shares some of his chilling experiences in the Vietnam War using a rather unconventional form. He writes war stories and most of the ones in this Knight
3 book just happen to be fictionalized. In order to make himself “feel again”, he creates what, in his mind, is the truth. He helps readers to decide whether autobiographies/memoirs are pure fact or memories and makes you realize that your experience is just as valuable as his own. He emphasizes the line between story-truth and happening-truth and reveals that story-truth, in fact, can be truer than happening-truth.