The Things They Carried Passage Analysis

In novel The Things They Carried, a central theme is reality vs fiction, believe bs disbelief, O’brien creates an unsteady relationship with the reader that makes one question even the most minute details and descriptions. At it’s core The Things They carried is a work of fiction, however this passage is more, it's a piece that teaches a class what makes fiction, rather than simply telling them a moralistic war story. While O'brien's use of fictional techniques such as, jargon, second person voice, verisimilitude, metafiction, and repetition within the passage are what create the sense believability, being able to recognize the use of such techniques is ironically also what allows the reader to critically analyze and question the reliability of O’Brien. In the end fragments and segments held together by a single narrative voice with the intention of “getting it right” progress the overall war story, as well as the commentary on truth. Here O’Brien uses
While the overlapping theme and anecdotes within this passage have seemingly nothing to do with one and other, the war stories further the ideas about truth O’Brien wants to convey, yet from there another layer is peeled back following the shift. Within the larger chapter the author recalls Lemon’s death four different times each with their own ornate level of detail such as the “whiteness of that light” that followed Curt’s soul as he ascended, he explains that his inability to “get it right” continues to wake him up at night This points to the idea that recalling, retelling, and reliving his experiences is therapeutic for O’brien. As he gets upset at a woman who “doesn’t listen” his manipulative behavior is parallel to that of Rat Kiley's while torturing the