Tim O'Brien as narrator states beautifully, "and yet any soldier will tell you, if he tells the truth, that proximity to death brings with it a corresponding proximity to life. After a fire-fight, there is always the immense pleasure of aliveness. The trees are alive. The grass, the soil-- everything. All around you things are purely living, and you among them, and the aliveness makes you tremble." (O'Brien, pg. 77).
This passage, along with many others in the novel, made me smile. I have nothing even remotely close to war to compare this sensation to, but the experience that immediately came into my head was the first couple hours after a stomach bug. All of a sudden everything around you seems wonderful-- jokes seem funnier, people seem more lovable, nature seems more beautiful. You wonder how come you don't revel in this paradise every second. I think that O'Brien (the writer, but also presumably the author) and his fellow soldiers' show amazing strength of character in their ability to experience such joy in a combat zone. It takes courage, a different kind of courage than we are used to, to recognize pain but not always fight to escape it, just recognize it's existence. In my religious studies class year we learned about this form of internal peace: we do not have to be happy every second in order to lead a happy, meaningful life. O'Brien experienced his own kind of meditation in the middle of violence and chaos; he preserved the innate beauty of living that is here for us to take or leave, but will not be forced upon us. As O'Brien describes, coming so close to death made him feel that much more alive. Although most of us will hopefully not have to find joy in a combat zone, I do think that O'Brien, in his "war story that's not a war story" was certainly telling a story that we can all remember when we are just having one of those bad, bad days.
I know exactly the feeling that you're describing. I think this is a really good emphasis on the idea that the stories that make up The Things They Carried are not war stories. In this case, he's telling a story about beauty. It makes the reader so much more engaged in the novel; it makes it easy to feel there, in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteIt's like that old cliche, "you never really know what you've got until it's gone." Or almost gone in this place. Often, we don't learn to appreciate life until we've almost lost it. As sad as that is, it's almost a blessing in disguise to find beauty in all the horror.
ReplyDeleteIt makes O'Brien's message much more universal than just war. It makes it something that we can all relate to, despite being so far removed from Vietnam.
Your post reminds me of a saying: "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." There is pain in war, but through stories we can find more meaning beyond suffering in them. A war story does not have to impress upon us how hellish war is--it can also show us friendship, love, sacrifice, beauty, etc. In the scenario you write about, the narrator's pain makes him remember to appreciate life, and therefore suffer less.
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