After the
war in Vietnam, thousands of courageous and valiant American soldiers returned
home to the United States. Those who were not stricken with physical
disabilities often suffered from mental ones such as post-traumatic stress
disorder. Instead of being treated as heroes like the veterans of World War II,
Vietnam veterans were often met with indifference and even scorn, as the US
failed to achieve their goal in the war. Some of Tim O’Brien’s stories in The Things They Carried address these
issues directly, such as “Speaking of Courage.” Throughout the novel, O’Brien
morphs reality with fantasy, leaving the reader with the same feelings that US
soldiers experienced before and after the war in Vietnam.
In The Things They Carried, readers are
instructed how to tell a true war story. However, despite the word “true” being
in the title of the chapter, O’Brien states that it is difficult to tell what
really happened in these stories, and that the surreal nature of a war story “represents
the hard and exact truth as it seemed”
(68). This paradox defines The Things
They Carried and makes it such a tantalizing set of stories. As a reader I
honestly do not know whether or not Tim O’Brien ever killed a man in the war. I
do not know if Rat Kiley really killed the baby water buffalo, despite having
the whole process explained to me in vivid detail. Tim O’Brien manipulates the
reader in this way, just like the mysterious and dangerous nature of the
Vietnam War manipulated everyone involved with it.
I enjoyed reading this post because this definitely speaks to part of the meaning of this book. Whether or not these exact stories are "true" or "really happened," there were many veterans who returned home and felt these same feelings and had similar stories. While I understand that some people feel cheated when they realize that these stories are fictional, I do not feel cheated because I believe the emotions that these stories evoke are far more important and are not fictional. The chapter How to Tell a True War Story is so powerful, and although we do not know whether or not Tim O'Brien killed a man or if Rat Kiley killed a baby water buffalo, in my opinion, these occurrences do not matter because they are real enough and display raw emotions that someone may have felt over losing their best friend in the war. I fully agree with your last sentence that we are manipulated as readers just as the Vietnam War manipulated those fighting in it. Many lives were either changed or ended, and this book shows what happens when lives are lost or changed.
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