Tim
O’Brien’s guilt for Kiowa’s death in The Things They Carried and the
Bokononist’s fear of living in a cruel world in Cat’s Cradle both
demonstrate how manipulative lies are used as a defense mechanism to help
individuals cope with constant destructive feelings.
In both of these texts, the authors
started off by stating that the content with in the books is not true. The fact
that they stated this made us conscious of the fact that the authors were
trying to manipulate us, but yet it was very easy for the readers to fall for
the lies. The mechanism behind the lies was different in each text, but the
purpose was quite similar. Both authors used lies to help them cope with their
feelings. O’Brien writes his lies because he has no other way of explaining his
emotions and feelings from the war. The Bokononists believe in a web of lies
that allows them to cope with the fact that they are living in an unstable and
depressing economy. By writing novels and memoires, O’Brien is able to relieve
some of the guilt he feels from “killing” Kiowa. By believing in Bokonism, the
people of San Lorenzo were able to feel happy and imagine that they lived in a
world full of bliss.
Cat’s
Cradle- pg. 127 quote from Calypsos
“I
wanted all things
To
seem to make some sense,
So
we all could be happy, yes,
Instead
of tense.
And
I made up lies
So
that they all fit nice,
And
I made this sad world
A
par-a-dise.
This quote is evidence that the
Bokononists believe in lies so they can feel better about themselves and about the
lives they live in.
The Things They Carried- pg. 178
“In
a way, maybe, I’d gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I’d mostly
worked my way out.”
Two decades later, Tim O’Brien has
written multiple books about the Vietnam war, which arguably are not about the
war at all. However, all of these books are written as O’Brien’s coping
mechanism to help him get over his grief and his guilt about Kiowa’s death.
I very much agree with your statements concerning O'Brien's coping through writing. Your observations concerning the Bokononists are also very concise and I agree with them, however in your discussion of Cat's Cradle, you seemed to speak more of the coping methods of Bokononist believers in general than of Vonnegut's reason for writing. Very insightful post!
ReplyDeleteI liked the thought behind the title of this post. Often, I feel that we read books, we don't make an effort to understand the meaning behind why the book was written and instead jump straight into the content of the book, as if every book was written for purely pedantic reasons. O'Brien writing this might be more for himself than us. It reminds me of when someone asked Chuck Palahniuk what the hardest and most worthwhile thing he had ever written was. It was a book he'd published just between his family concerning the death of one of his relatives, and largely this helped him cope with that death.
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