Tim O 'Brien's The Things They Carried'
Campbell Veasey
English 3 MG
May 2013
What is a true war story? Is it a collection of memories, pulled from the ragged and weary brain of a soldier, and stitched together to form literature? Is it a fictitious (albeit perfectly accurate) account of battle, formulated by a civilian English major for his dissertation? One might argue that a true war story cannot be defined, for it will never exist. A thorough and valid account of battle, sticking without fail to the truth of the story, will inevitably be changed by either the soldier’s aggrandizement, or the loss of memory needed to translate the brain’s images into words. This results in there being a very thin line between …show more content…
As explained his own book, The Things They Carried, O’Brien was enjoying his post-graduate freedom, a steady job and a girlfriend at home during the summer of 1968 when he received the draft letter from the army. He describes how he reacted to receiving the letter: “I remember opening up the letter, scanning the first few lines, feeling the blood go thick behind my eyes… It couldn’t happen. I was above it” (O’Brien, Carried 41). His reaction shows that he, as an anti-war, educated liberal, felt a sort of entitlement and had decided that he would not be chosen to fight due to the content of his character. He most likely expected to live through the wartime years on American soil, while assuming that the government knew he was not an acceptable fit. Unfortunately for him, this was not the case. O’Brien was shipped to Vietnam the same year, where he saw his first taste of combat within a few …show more content…
O 'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990. Print.
2. O 'Brien, Tim. Going After Cacciato. 1st ed. New York: Broadway, 1999. Print.
Secondary Sources
1. Franklin, Bruce H. “Tim O 'Brien, My Lai, and America.” Literary Resources on the Net. Rutgers University, 1994. Web. 28 February 2013.
2. Vernon, Alex. “Salvation, Storytelling, and Pilgrimage in Tim O 'Brien 's The Things They Carried.” Proquest Learning: Literature. Proquest, 2003. Web. 19 February 2013. 3. Kaplan, Steven. “The Undying uncertainty of the narrator in Tim O 'Brien 's The Things They Carried.” Critique. Student Pulse, 1993. Web. 23rd February 2013.
4. Slay Jr, Jack. “A rumor of war: Another look at the observation post in Tim O 'Brien 's Going After Cacciato.” Critique. Taylor & Francis online, 1999. Web. 23rd February 2013.
5. Gates, David. “Everybody must get sloshed: O 'Brien 's novels revolve around baby boomers from the 60 's.” Proquest Learning: Literature. The New York Times Book Review, 2002. Web. 23rd February 2013. 6. Wesley, Marilyn. “Truth and Fiction in Tim O 'Brien 's If I die in a Combat Zone”. Proquest Learning: Literature. College Literature, 2002. Web. 23rd February
English 3 MG
May 2013
What is a true war story? Is it a collection of memories, pulled from the ragged and weary brain of a soldier, and stitched together to form literature? Is it a fictitious (albeit perfectly accurate) account of battle, formulated by a civilian English major for his dissertation? One might argue that a true war story cannot be defined, for it will never exist. A thorough and valid account of battle, sticking without fail to the truth of the story, will inevitably be changed by either the soldier’s aggrandizement, or the loss of memory needed to translate the brain’s images into words. This results in there being a very thin line between …show more content…
As explained his own book, The Things They Carried, O’Brien was enjoying his post-graduate freedom, a steady job and a girlfriend at home during the summer of 1968 when he received the draft letter from the army. He describes how he reacted to receiving the letter: “I remember opening up the letter, scanning the first few lines, feeling the blood go thick behind my eyes… It couldn’t happen. I was above it” (O’Brien, Carried 41). His reaction shows that he, as an anti-war, educated liberal, felt a sort of entitlement and had decided that he would not be chosen to fight due to the content of his character. He most likely expected to live through the wartime years on American soil, while assuming that the government knew he was not an acceptable fit. Unfortunately for him, this was not the case. O’Brien was shipped to Vietnam the same year, where he saw his first taste of combat within a few …show more content…
O 'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990. Print.
2. O 'Brien, Tim. Going After Cacciato. 1st ed. New York: Broadway, 1999. Print.
Secondary Sources
1. Franklin, Bruce H. “Tim O 'Brien, My Lai, and America.” Literary Resources on the Net. Rutgers University, 1994. Web. 28 February 2013.
2. Vernon, Alex. “Salvation, Storytelling, and Pilgrimage in Tim O 'Brien 's The Things They Carried.” Proquest Learning: Literature. Proquest, 2003. Web. 19 February 2013. 3. Kaplan, Steven. “The Undying uncertainty of the narrator in Tim O 'Brien 's The Things They Carried.” Critique. Student Pulse, 1993. Web. 23rd February 2013.
4. Slay Jr, Jack. “A rumor of war: Another look at the observation post in Tim O 'Brien 's Going After Cacciato.” Critique. Taylor & Francis online, 1999. Web. 23rd February 2013.
5. Gates, David. “Everybody must get sloshed: O 'Brien 's novels revolve around baby boomers from the 60 's.” Proquest Learning: Literature. The New York Times Book Review, 2002. Web. 23rd February 2013. 6. Wesley, Marilyn. “Truth and Fiction in Tim O 'Brien 's If I die in a Combat Zone”. Proquest Learning: Literature. College Literature, 2002. Web. 23rd February