TTTC
Kyla Cloud
Paulson
English 101
15 April 2015
They Carried Emotional Burdens
In the novel, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien not only are there many cases of lost innocence but there are many other complications that come with it. The novel itself is stated to be a fiction novel, but in many examples it shows that Tim O’Brien himself had a personal connection to the stories told. This leaves us with the idea that just like his character, Tim O’Brien was using storytelling to combat his experiences in the Vietnam War. It seems as though O’Brien has a lot of themes that contradict themselves, such as; what is happening truth and story truth, loss of innocence and imagining it is still there, courage and cowardice, and guilt versus redemption. These are many themes found throughout the novel, they all prove that it is not just the physical things that these young men carried during the war, but one of the heaviest things these men carried were their emotional burdens.
It seems to me that the genre of the novel, The Things They Carried cannot be classified into Fiction or Non-Fiction. There is a controversy with the stories within the novel. Are they true stories or are they fictional? In the article, “Urban Legends in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried” writer Thomas E. Barden writes about the confusion of the genre, “maybe we are dealing here with that form of writing the new South American novelists would call 'magic realism” (Barden). Magic Realism is a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative or meticulously realistic painting are combined with surreal elements of fantasy and dreams. This sounds like a more suitable genre for the novel The Things they carried. Not only is there confusion on the genre being Fiction or Non-Fiction but many stories in the novel strike up controversy as well. It seems for O’Brien that something is not true, unless it feels true. The truth according to him is not based upon the real facts, but purely based on
Paulson
English 101
15 April 2015
They Carried Emotional Burdens
In the novel, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien not only are there many cases of lost innocence but there are many other complications that come with it. The novel itself is stated to be a fiction novel, but in many examples it shows that Tim O’Brien himself had a personal connection to the stories told. This leaves us with the idea that just like his character, Tim O’Brien was using storytelling to combat his experiences in the Vietnam War. It seems as though O’Brien has a lot of themes that contradict themselves, such as; what is happening truth and story truth, loss of innocence and imagining it is still there, courage and cowardice, and guilt versus redemption. These are many themes found throughout the novel, they all prove that it is not just the physical things that these young men carried during the war, but one of the heaviest things these men carried were their emotional burdens.
It seems to me that the genre of the novel, The Things They Carried cannot be classified into Fiction or Non-Fiction. There is a controversy with the stories within the novel. Are they true stories or are they fictional? In the article, “Urban Legends in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried” writer Thomas E. Barden writes about the confusion of the genre, “maybe we are dealing here with that form of writing the new South American novelists would call 'magic realism” (Barden). Magic Realism is a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative or meticulously realistic painting are combined with surreal elements of fantasy and dreams. This sounds like a more suitable genre for the novel The Things they carried. Not only is there confusion on the genre being Fiction or Non-Fiction but many stories in the novel strike up controversy as well. It seems for O’Brien that something is not true, unless it feels true. The truth according to him is not based upon the real facts, but purely based on
Cited: BARDEN, THOMAS E. "Urban Legends In Tim O 'brien 's The Things They Carried." War, Literature & The Arts: An International Journal Of The Humanities 22.1 (2010): 1-14. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. Kudo, Timothy. "How We Learned to Kill." The New York Times 27 Feb. 2015: n. pag. Print. O 'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. London: Flamingo, 1991. Print. O 'Gorman, Farrell. "The Things They Carried as Composite Novel." War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities 10.2 (Fall/Winter1998 1998): 289. Military & Government Collection.