The Things They Carried Essay

Backpack of Life Some feelings and events in life are easy to express and explain, a funny joke or a humorous anecdote, even the taste of a beloved food. There are however, certain subjects and emotions that are not as easily described and spoken about. These subjects are only fully experienced as they happen. In the novel The Things They Carried, the author Tim O’Brien makes an effective attempt to bring the feelings and emotions of the Vietnam War to the reader. The characters Mary Anne, Linda, and Kathleen serve as symbols of his efforts. Using these characters O’Brien conveys the life-changing effects the war held, his attempts to bring those people and events back to life, and just how misunderstood it is from the eyes of the generations to follow. Many of O’Brien’s stories contain more of a sense of emotional truth than what actually went on. In “Sweetheart Of The Song Tra Bong” O’Brien does just that, whether or not the story is true, the emotions projected are real. O’Brien is showing that the severe kind of dramatic change the reader sees in Mary Anne could have befallen anyone involved in the war. Mary Anne’s transformation begins innocently, “the war intrigued her. The land too, and the mystery”, naively stating “it can’t be that bad […] they’re human beings aren’t they? Like everybody else?” (92). O’Brien shows this playful innocent side of her first in order to eventually juxtapose the completely new character depicted at the end of the chapter. Rat Kiley even speaks out about them all “we were real young and innocent, full of romantic bullshit, but we learned pretty damn quick. And so did Mary Anne”(93). Using the character of Mary Anne, O’Brien is able to give the reader a sense of the helplessness others feel when trying to understand how and why someone would experience that change. He pushes the notion that those outside of the war, those who weren’t up to their eyeballs in it would “never understand any of this, not in a billion years” (108). Following this idea O’Brien introduces his young daughter Kathleen, a young girl without a clue of what went on inside the war. Kathleen represents many young individuals, all those people who were not part of the war, and did not experience its horrors and atrocities. She portrays the current generation and how it may criticize and understate the war and its importance. She is confused and ignorant about the reasons for everyone, including her father in particular, entering the war and the events that unfolded on the front lines. O’Brien’s inclusion of Kathleen, be it real or fake, is his way of characterizing all those who question the war and who cannot understand, simply because they were not there. Kathleen sees no great importance in the war; she has no way to grasp the effect it had on all those involved. She criticizes her father for returning, stating, “You’re pretty weird, aren’t you? […] Coming over here, some dumb thing happens a long time ago and you can’t ever forget it”(175). Kathleen believes her father to be foolish for continuing to live and dream the war. O’Brien nonetheless strives to find closure for himself and his old army mates, “in a way, maybe, I’d gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I’d mostly worked my way out”(178). O’Brien effectively shows that the effects of the Vietnam War are felt for a lifetime, he is still holding on to all the things he carried, in his life, dreams, and stories. O’Brien holds on to his memories and emotions with his stories, these are what make him able to convey feelings he is desperately holding on too. He brings all those who have died in his life back to life with his words. He recalls, “I learned that words make a difference. It’s easier to cope with a kicked bucket than a corpse; if it isn’t human, it doesn’t matter much if its dead” (226). With words the soldiers are able to disregard the loss of human life, referring to the dead not as people but as “roasted peanuts” or “crunchie munchies”. With these identities they made “the dead seem not quite so dead” (226). O’Brien does the same with his lost love Linda, embodying her spirit in his dreams so she can live on. This method of ingraining real truth and emotion into a story unknown to be true or false is apparent throughout the novel. O’Brien employs this method so powerfully that all of his tales and characters give the reader something to actually care about and feel about them the way he does inside. He expresses through Linda that “once you’re alive, you can’t ever be dead […] it was a kind of self hypnosis. Partly willpower, partly blind faith, which is how stories arrive” (230). O’Brien sets himself apart from others who attempt to tell war stories. He veers away from the classic formula, from the cliché tales of heroism and miracles in war. The stories seen everywhere that don’t contain the true feelings and emotion held. With the characters of Mary Anne, Kathleen, and Linda, O’Brien presents a real look at the war from an individual with first hand experience. He brings back the lives of those he lost and is able to present characters with a purpose, giving all those people who were not in that era and moment, a look at the Vietnam War and war in general, not found in many other places.