The Things They Carried
The Things They Carried is about a Vietnam vet looking back twenty years later at his experiences as a foot soldier (legs or grunts as O’Brien called them). As a reader we learn these painful stories have been in his head and heart for all these years and finally the time came to share them. O’Brien wrote the book as a powerful, emotional cleansing both for himself and the reader.
He tells his war stories as if you’re sitting down on the front porch with him on a hot summer day and he’s opened up to you—sharing painful memories, some of which he’s never shared before.
The book is written almost as a stream of consciousness with poetic language and humor that help balance the shock and horror of some stories. You feel his pain, fear, guilt and confusion at being drafted to fight in a war he doesn’t understand or believe in. You feel the weight of what they carried: their weapons, their letters from home, photos of women they love, Bibles, their talismans against death and you wonder what you would carry in that situation.
The first story in the book is “The Things They Carried.” Here is a quote from that story:
“They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing—these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture.” p. 21
The reader is told the same story more than once, but it changes with the telling and new information is added. It flows like a river changing course yet still the same river. His memory of the stories is unreliable, but within the shifting narrative there is truth.
O’Brien creates a feeling, a taste of what it was like to trudge through the jungle with a group of young naïve men, never knowing from day to day if you or your comrades might die from a sniper shot or stepping on a land mine or in combat. O’Brien talks about the close friendships that form when your life depends on another person.
Here is a quote from the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story.”
“There was a noise, I suppose, which must’ve been the detonator, so I glanced behind me and watched Lemon step from the shade into bright sunlight. His face was suddenly brown and shining. A handsome kid, really. Sharp eyes, lean and narrow-waisted, and when he died it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms.” p. 70
I related to the book in a deep way because it was my generation being drafted or enlisting in the Vietnam War. It was my generation staying in college, going to Canada, or go off-grid to avoid being drafted into a senseless war. It was my generation who protested the war and got fired up about stopping it. My generation of young men who died at war. My generation of men who came back from the war shell-shocked with post-traumatic stress. And yet the war story is not just about Vietnam, but also about the senselessness of all war and the experiences of men (and women) in any war.
The book is a considered one of the best ever written about Vietnam and O’Brien is considered one of the best American writers of his generation. Read this book not only for a greater understanding of what it’s like to be in a war, but for the beauty of the writing itself; to see how our memories are unreliable and yet can capture the truth of an experience.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Would you agree that stories change over time, but still carry truth? Do you think any good comes from traumatic experiences such as fighting in a war? Have you found telling stories to be healing?
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Mai spends hours every day playing the cello, though she plays more out of love than self-discipline. Her father enjoyed being in a band and also had talent, but he made the sacrifice of giving up being in the band to become a teacher and support his children. He then discovered he loved teaching and was happy with his choice.
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