Blog #79 – Vietnam in Fiction
Tim O’Brien’s book, The Things They Carried, focuses on the members of Alpha Company as they hump across Vietnam and also how they dealt with civilian life (“Speaking of Courage”). 
1. The things that the soldiers carried in battle were not just physical things but mental / emotional as well. Henry Dobbins wore his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck as a comforter. But after the war is over and done with, the soldiers, like Lt. Cross, carry guilt and pain around with them. How did the soldiers cope with being in combat?
2. The novel is also about truth, especially with the story, “How to Tell a True War Story,” which seems contradictory in many cases. But maybe that’s what the truth really is in a war-time environment – unclear. Why isn’t the truth always clear, especially as shown as in the novel?
3. The novel also captures loneliness and isolation experienced by the American soldiers while in the Vietnamese jungle. Though the soldiers are surrounded by their comrades in arms, many don’t feel a connection to each other. Could this be because they’ve been drafted into a war they don’t want to fight? Or that war is the most loneliest experience – do or die on the battlefield?
4. How does shame or the idea of letting another person down motivate Tim and other soldiers in the stories?
“They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment.”
300 words minimum – pick two of the above questions and include an assessment of the book.
In the novel The Things They Carried, the American soldiers experience great loneliness and isolation while in the jungles of Vietnam. They might be experiencing these feelings because they are fighting in a war that they did not choose to enter. They were drafted and forced into an unknown and mysterious country overseas. Although they are with their comrades during these hard times, they are still many miles away from their families and friends. From reading this story, I feel that the soldiers aren’t connecting because they feel that each other have different opinions of the war. Whether they are for or against it, the other soldiers may have different opinions of the war and it is hard to connect with someone who is completely against what you believe in.
I think that shame or the idea of letting someone down motivates Tim and other soldiers throughout the story because of many reasons. To begin with, they are fighting in Vietnam because they had made a commitment to help South Vietnam fight off the North and communism. There are many men, woman, and children whose lives and futures depend on these soldiers. Also, the U.S. Government who over the years has made many statements about defending against and destroying communism. Promises had been made to assist any country attempting to fight off communism. Finally, the families that they had left back in the United States want them to return safely.
So far I find the story very interesting. On like modern war tales, The Things They Carried tells a realistic and not romanticized version. It gives the ready a ground level view of what war in unknown terrain where the enemy is not known may be like. Tim O’Brien shares the feeling of your best friend being killed before your eyes and having to pull his body out of the mud in this novel. This is definitely a novel that I would read again for pleasure.
I really enjoy this book. It is very intriguing to read a story from the perspective of someone in the war. This novel really gives the reader an idea of what war is actually like. This book has made me come to many realizations. First, I have realized that I want to live life to the fullest and never waste a minute because life is short and could end at any time. Second, not only have I realized how privileged I am, but also how privileged our time period is. The draft has been abolished, so no one needs to go to war unless they volunteer.
3. I think that the soldiers in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien do not feel a connection with the other soldiers for many reasons. One, the soldiers may feel isolated because war is considered the loneliest place on earth, especially when the soldiers are against the war that they are fighting. War is an awful place to be in reality and in the mind. Having a “war mindset” separates you from trying to make friends or relate to other people that are fighting,. Another reason why the soldiers may not connect to each other is because they won’t allow themselves to become friends with anyone. This may be because many soldiers were dying in Vietnam and maybe the soldiers did not want to lose another friend. Also, they may have been protecting the other soldiers from being hurt by their own death. No one at this point needed to experience anymore pain.
4. Shame helps motivate the soldiers in this story because they do not want to let down their friends, family, or country. As much as they do not want to fight and would love to run away, they must protect their country and everyone in it. They do not want to be embarrassed or feel ashamed that they could not protect anyone or that they stopped fighting for any reason. They do not want to go down in history as a coward. Men are very self-conscious about their “manhood” and never want anyone to question how “manly” they are.
I liked this book. I also liked that we are reading this book at the same time as I am reading a book for English hitch also talks about soldiers during a war. That book though is more realistic and talks a lot about the wounds of the soldiers and the blood which can get scary. But anyways I do like this book even though I feel like it gets boring but that’s because its the real view behind the Vietnam War. Its the reality of what happened and not much is going to happen other than the war. But I do like that each of the soldiers have their own thing they think about day and night.
This is because since some of them hoped to forget but they couldn’t they had to carry everything that happened with them throughout the rest of their lives. Some of them killed people, maybe accidentally or because they had to protect themselves but in the end they still killed innocent people. For example there was someone who killed a young man in his 20s and he has always regretted it even though all his friends would tell them its okay because the man was almost dead anyways that didn’t make it better but he tried to forget it. Then when his daughter mentioned it, he had to remember the whole thing that happened.
Since honor is great thing for everyone in the 1900, people live to get honor and they also would want to die in honor, so having shame and letting someone down is not honorable which would make all their hard work for horn go down. They wouldn’t want to lose their honor or the fact that people respect them which is basically what everyone wants. And if you let someone down its going to be your fault and you won’t be able to do anything about it. For example in the book, when Lt Cross would think of Martha things could happen, and then one day something did happen because he was thinking about his love for Martha, his friend died which made him sad. He felt so much shame and he felt so bad because he let his friend down that he started hating Martha. He still felt that shame at the end of the war because a friend died on his watch.
In the book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brian the separate short stories show how lonely the soldiers are and how shame motivated them to fight the war. “The Things They Carried” tells stories that are real and interesting. It is not just a book about troops killing people, but the reason why they kill and their true and most honest feelings about the war. Not every soldier wants to be a war hero and everyone has fear inside of them. This light shines through as the common theme of the story. In this story the soldiers are truly lonely, this is shown through the short story titled “How To Tell A True War Story”. The soldiers in this story are portrayed as lonely when they are stranded in the middle of the Vietnamese rainforest dominated by their enemies. The story is told that during the middle of the night the soldiers would all be grouped together but let fear completely take them over. They are surrounded by pitch black and cannot see anything, so they rely on their ears. They all imagine to hear the sounds of their enemies having a cocktail party and listening to music. this shows the fear and isolation the troops had to face. An example of shame motivating soldiers to got to war and not run away to Canada was summarized in the chapter called “On The Rainy River”. This was a true and shameful story about the author himself. He did not want to go to war as a youthful young man who didn’t even see a true meaning in fighting in it. He wanted to run away from his whole life in Minnesota just to escape to Canada to not fight in the Vietnam War. As he begins his indecisive journey to Canada he stops at a hotel that had log cabins instead of personal rooms. It was vacant at the time he was there and only the owner occupied the hotel. As he got to know the owner he looks back on his journey and realizes that the owner was the deciding factor of whether or not he would got to war. O’Brian explained in descriptive details that the war would be apart of his future, it would shape him into the man that he would become in the future. He saw that it would help him to build a family, make new relationships, and just grow from the harsh journey of the war. This book is very real and influential.
3.
I think soldiers didn’t always make a real connection with one another because they were more concerned with their lives back home. In the book, especially with Lieutenant Cross, soldiers would always think about their sweat hearts and their family back home rather than the war. I think the big reason they were never really thinking about the war is because the soldiers were drafted into the war. This meant they were not volunteers, they were randomly selected in the middle of college, jobs, and starting families. Colleges had stopped making pardons so soldiers didn’t have to go to war, so there was no escaping being sent to Vietnam. Since these soldiers were draftees, they didn’t want to be fighting. They didn’t have the volunteer spirit, where they wanted to be war heroes and wanted to be in the middle of the fighting. Their lack of enthusiasm then translated to their relationships with fellow soldiers. They never made real connections because they didn’t want to be fighting in the first place, and were consumed with the lives they left back home. I think that since they were forced to go, they just ran through the motions in the sense that they did what they had to do, and didn’t go above and beyond anything. They just wanted to get the job done and get home as soon as possible.
4.
I think shame is a huge motivation for Tim during the book, as it’s what made him go to the war in the first place. He first got this motivation when he ran away from home with the plan to flee to Canada, and lodged up in Minnesota with Elroy Berdahl, who was a man of little words. During a fishing trip with Elroy, Tim has the chance to swim to Canada. Elroy purposely chose a spot near the bank of our northern neighbor to make the concept of fleeing the country and the war and his family real to Tim. When he realized it was Canada, Tim came to a crossroads. He realized that he couldn’t stand the insults he’d get if he ran like a coward from Vietnam, as he’d been drafted. He tried to force himself to leave, but he just couldn’t do it. He said, “I would go to the war — I would kill and maybe die — because I was embarrassed not to.” He had to fight the war because he couldn’t stand the shame that would take hold over him. This is the shame that motivated him to fight in the war. I think soon-to-be soldiers had this revelation all over the country when they’d been drafted, and they too were motivated to go to war by the shame of being a coward and running away. I think this shame was what made many draftees go to the war in the end; they couldn’t live with the shame of ditching and failing their country, towns, families, and fellow Americans, and letting the despised Communists become an even greater superpower. Because if they wouldn’t fight the Communists, wouldn’t that mean they too were Communist, and an enemy of the U.S.? No, they’d face this unwanted war in order to avoid the shame that would undoubtedly be associated with them if they fled from their duty in it.
So far, I have found The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien to be quite a compelling novel. It is a gripping take on the Vietnam War and leaves nothing to the imagination. It gives you the hard cold truth about what soldiers experienced in the jungles of an unknown land, where danger lurked around every corner. This novel make you wonder about how you would react if you were in the characters’ shoes, something that is captivatingly done with O’Brien’s great writing. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with even the slightest interest in Vietnam or raw storytelling.
3. I think the soldiers in the book don’t feel a strong connection with their comrades because their internal thoughts to themselves are more personal than any other connection with a brother-in-arms. Humping for days upon days in the jungles of Vietnam would make anyone fell isolated. There, they only have their own personal thoughts and memoires to comfort them. We see this with Jimmy Cross, who becomes distracted from the war and his men by the memories of the girl he loves, Martha. Even if he’s not thinking about Martha, he is more relaxed and comfortable when he thinks about being away from Vietnam, perhaps on the golf course back in the States with no worries in the world. This goes for the rest of the young men in the war. The soldiers feel closer to home with mere thoughts of their lives that they left behind than they do with anything that has to do with Vietnam; including their platoon mates.
4. The idea of bringing shame upon themselves and letting their friends and family down motivates O’Brien and his comrades to be fearless. If they straight up fell down in the heat of battle and started bawling for their mothers, they would be branded a yellowbelly. This is the most shameful fate of any soldier; worse than death by drowning in a field of actual crap. At least the soldier who died in the field of feces didn’t die uncourageous. Those who intentionally injury themselves by shooting off a finger or toe are said to be cowards. However, not only does a soldier man up and fight to bring honor to himself amongst his fellow army buddies, but also to bring honor to his families. Nobody wants to be the guy who went home from the war to tell his parents that they wimped out of battle and shot their toe off just so they didn’t have to stay in Vietnam. This is something that a veteran could never forget, and the soldiers would rather keep all the bad experiences confined to one place: Vietnam.
My Assessment-
As I’ve been reading this book, I have noticed that it’s not your typical outlook on war. When you think of war, you may think of it the way the government wants you to. They romanticize war, so it doesn’t seem like it’s as bad as it truly is. This way, the public still supports the war, and they don’t have to deal with a country who is at a war their people don’t want to be in. This book tells the absolute truth, and shows how war really is. It shows the war from the standpoint of ordinary soldiers who could only rely on what they could carry on their own backs, and each other. It shows how terribly gruesome and horrible war really is. It shows how men who once couldn’t stomach the sight of blood wear cut off fingers like a necklace. The book shows the true effect war has on soldiers and citizens that are in the war-stricken country. I think this is a really special book because of this, and I think it’s an amazing yet terrible thing, as it demonstrates the true meaning of war, yet it exposes the reader to things that defy our humane and civilized way of life. These things make me truly appreciate the book, the Vietnam war, and even wars now more than I had before. It also makes me appreciate those fighting overseas in wars now who have to go through these things so we Americans can live the life we do in a civilized and privileged way.
3) Tim O’Brien shows that loneliness and isolation are things that the soldiers face. He emphasizes that the thoughts and fears of the soldiers are hurtful to them. The soldiers felt paranoid, like the story when the soldiers are so paranoid that they hear things being alone in the silence. Some may have felt this way because they disagreed with what they were fighting for. Others may have because they didn’t want to be taken from their lives and put in a war to fight. They have a fear of being cut off and away from the world they know. They were isolated from it all, their homes and everyone they loved. They don’t have strong connections with their comrades because of the thoughts they have that aren’t shared.
4) Shame or the idea of letting another person down motivates Tim and the other soldiers because none of them want to let anyone down or have anyone be ashamed of them. They don’t want to be considered a coward. They are worried about what their families and other people will think of them if they don’t do what they are told to as soldiers. They are worried about social acceptance in the stress of the war. They may die, but to them at least they died fighting for their country with bravery instead of being a coward and fleeing from the problem.
So far, I like this book because it shows a version of being a part of the war, a version that is the truth of the experiences. We can see the war from the inside from the perspective of someone who was in the war. This gives us an idea of what went on with the soldiers and the thoughts that they had when it happened. It’s interesting how each soldier has their own emotional and physical things they carry around with them.
I am interested by this book. The concept is great: a series of stories that seem to be a little disjointed from time to time but in the end tie together quite nicely. This book allows the reader to get some sort of perspective on what it is like to fight in a war but also lets the reader know that he/she cannot possibly fathom what the soldiers in the Vietnam War went through, or in any war for that matter. This book only reminds me that when people see veterans and say something along the lines of, “thank you for your service to our country”, those words are truly not enough. Nothing can be said that is enough to fill the void that is created by the horrors of war, unless it is said by a person who has experienced it himself/herself. Or maybe no words have to be said at all.
Question Three: I think the soldiers don’t feel a connection to one another because so many of them come from so many different backgrounds. They were indeed all drafted into a war they didn’t want to fight and this is a big reason why they didn’t have any connection. When people come from different backgrounds, it’s hard to relate to one another and build comradery. However, we do see examples of soldiers being friends despite their differences but we see more friction between the men than friendliness. The concept that war is the loneliest experience could make the men feel disconnected. On one hand, the men probably would feel lonely, left to their own thoughts and fighting their own demons; especially when they might not feel like they can confide in any of their comrades. On the other hand, these men likely have to work together in order to survive in such harsh conditions (do or die) and one would think this would draw them closer together. Maybe I’m wrong.
Question Four: One thing that sticks out that is a good thing and also a bad thing from the Vietnam War is pride. Whether it be LBJ’s being too proud to pull out of the war because he didn’t want to face failure, or the men being spurred on because they didn’t want to be ashamed. I think that shame motivated Tim and the other soldiers because nobody wants to be ashamed in their last moments. These men knew they could die in any second and they want to go knowing that they did the best they could do and everyone would remember them in a positive light. They want their legacy to be a good one, not a bad one.
So far, I’ve come to enjoy The Things They Carried. Typically, I’m not the type of person to enjoy non-fiction stories documenting true stories, because I can never get fully engaged in the story. This one is an exception to that; it captured my attention right from the beginning. The way that the stories all fit together with one essential idea, but don’t necessarily go in one particular order following one big idea makes it easy: almost like several short stories in one that all document different aspects of Tim’s experience throughout this war. Another thing I like is that none of it is sugar coated, it tells the total truth. As uncomfortable as it may be to read this sometimes, it makes you truly think about what he is experiencing.
3. There are a few possible reasons for the lack of connection between soldiers in this war. One could be that some of them don’t want to be there: when you are forced to do something you don’t want to do, it’s harder to make connections with people. This can be said for simple things such as parents sending their child to a camp they don’t want to be at: likely, if the child doesn’t want to be there, it won’t be an experience they enjoy or want to make friends with other people. Naturally, war is not an enjoyable experience, but it could be made more bearable by making friends with the people around them. The second reason could likely be the pressure. When fighting in a war, the pressure is on to do what you can to help your country, whether that means life or death. It is an immense amount of pressure to put on one person, and with that weight on your shoulders, making friends is likely one of the last things on your mind. The weight of possible death is also on their shoulders at all times. Knowing you could die any time or place is another weight added to their shoulders and likely occupies their mind often.
4. The idea of not letting people down is another one of the weights the soldiers carry on their shoulders. Likely, they think about how many people back at home are counting on them. Sometimes in a situation where there is so much pressure on a group, each individual tends to take the blame for the entire situation, even if it isn’t rational. Each soldier may think that a loss of another soldier or anything similar is his or her fault only, even if it isn’t. It is difficult to convince someone something isn’t their fault if they believe it is. They don’t want to feel like they didn’t do enough to protect their country, when there is so much pressure to win this war: the war on communism would be impacting the lives of the entire country at home. That’s a lot for one person, or a group of people, to be holding onto as they fight for their lives and their country.
So far, I am enjoying the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. I find this book eye-opening because it talks about the experience of war, which most of us never experienced before. Tim O’Brien seems to write this story to get people who don’t know how it feels to be in the middle of a battle, to people who don’t know how it is to lose a friend on a battle field. The stories he tells, make me realize that I’m lucky that I don’t have to be in such a horrifying situation.
Physical weight can bring a person down, but mental and emotional weight can too. The soldiers in Vietnam did carry a lot of weight on their shoulders, both physically and mentally. Many of the soldiers experienced the feeling of guilt, but it affected each one differently. For example Lt. Cross felt guilty about Kiowa’s death. Cross thought that if he didn’t lead his unit to the Song Tra Bong, then Kiowa wouldn’t have died. On the other hand, a soldier in Cross’s unit blamed himself for Kiowa’s death. He believed that because he turned on a flashlight at night, Kiowa was killed. In addition, when Ted Lavender died months before, Lt. Cross dug himself a foxhole and cried during the night because he felt that his death was all his fault.
Some of the soldiers who went to war had some trouble connecting with each other. It might have been because they were drafted to a war that they didn’t want to fight. Those men might have been so focused on their own demons that they were not able to connect to another person. Moreover, if soldiers would become friends, and one would die, the others would be devastated because of the loss of their friend. Like in O’Brien’s story, Lieutenant Cross blamed himself when Ted Lavender died. They also might feel lonely because the battlefield is a lonely place. Even though there are other soldiers around, one might be lonely because at the end it’s a fight for their life.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is coming off as an enjoyable novel. I have read stories about wars before and none have been as mentally intriguing as this. The book really gives an inside look at what the soldiers did and had to do and how it has affected them. I hope the book continues to be like this.
In the novel by Tim O’Brien the soldiers do not seem connected with the land or each other and come off lonely. One reason I think this is, is that they all were forced to go there. They all were drafted and had to make the best out of an uncomfortable situation. They don’t want to be in Vietnam, they want to be at home smooching there girls and living life. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross constantly thought about being home with Martha. They aren’t connected to each other because they are all just like work friends. You are nice to them and all and have things in common but you wouldn’t invite them back into your house. War is also a lonely and dark experience. The idea of living everyday doing risky things is scary because there’s a possibility that you won’t be around the next day to see the sun.
Shame is a way of life for the soldiers in Vietnam who must take preventative measures to ensure their lives don’t end in it. Tim and the other soldiers didn’t want to kill the innocent Vietnamese but they had to because if they didn’t they had let people down and would feel shameful. This happens to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross when Lavender is killed. Lavender gets shot when Cross is distracted thinking about the love of his life, Martha, and not concentrating on the task at hand. If the soldiers were to not do their duties in Vietnam, the shame had a long lasting effect and many soldiers took it home with them and never were free from the burden.
1) Not only do the soldiers in battle carry physical things that will help them through their tough times, they also carry mental and emotional things. Ted Lavender was one who was very nervous all the time in the army before he was shot. He carried more ammunition and weapons than anyone else, including Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. He seemed (and wanted) to be the most prepared out of anyone, even if he seemed to be paranoid. However, one day while Ted was on his way back from the bathroom, he was shot and killed. How could this have happened with so many soldiers on guard? That is the problem: Cross had been distracted and forgotten to make sure that soldiers were covering one another at all times. The Lieutenant will forever carry the feeling of guilt about the death of Ted Lavender. Although Ted probably should not have gone alone to use the bathroom, I think that it was the Lieutenant’s job to make sure all of his men were covered and safe.
2) Throughout the chapter “How to Tell a War Story,” Tim explains that telling a true war story is extremely difficult to do. One of his comrades, for example, was one day telling of a story about men who needed to stay completely silent for seven straight days in the mountains. After a few days they begin to hear voices; since no one is around, the say that it was the rocks of the mountains speaking and singing to them. The soldier goes into great detail about all of the different things they heard from the rocks. A while after the story was finished, however, he admits to O’Brien that parts of the story were untrue in order to make Tim really feel the emotions of the story. The fact that many of the greatest and truest war stories have many parts that are both unclear, and untrue, make them very contradictory to their names.
I personally find the “The Things They Carried” to be intriguing. The idea of having every chapter a new topic and story helps to keep my interest. They all focus on a new person and their death or often near death experiences and how they cope. This wouldn’t have been a book I would have picked up on my own to read because of the overall idea and concept. When I read I need a connection with the book either personal or otherwise to stay intrigued, and our current learning of the Vietnam War is my connection. I had heard of war veterans and I knew the overall idea of PTSD and how most soldiers don’t come back the same as they were before they left. I have heard the facts about the Vietnam War and how long it lasted, about the many different bombing locations and rulers during the time. Yet I hadn’t heard the first hand experiences of the young men witnessing and living the tragedy of the Vietnam War.
Question One: The guilt and pain that Soldiers live with in their post war lives is a burden that no one but themselves can relieve. I believe the reason that soldiers hold onto something is because it reminds them of their humanity and acts a security. The Soldiers are expected to follow through on all this killing for their country but there is no way that they can completely succeed with no scars. While soldiers were away from their loved ones and lives back home they could hold onto the physical items like Henry Dobbins with his girlfriend’s pantyhose. But once they return home they have full access to the physical items and have to hold onto an emotional memory either good or bad to remind them.
Question Three: Loneliness is a feeling that can usually be erased by other humans being, but for Soldiers the circumstances are different. I believe the Soldiers feel this loneliness because they are afraid to become close to men that may die out on the battlefield with them. The men have already been drafted and sent to fight for their country causing them to leave their loved ones back home; they are scared to find comfort within other Soldiers because of the fear of losing them too.
Dahvi’s reflection.
So far I am enjoying the book because I like learning about the experiences of the soldiers and the things they go through. I did not expect that some of the soldiers had many goofy moments and had some enjoyable times, given the circumstances. For example when Rat Kiley and Curt Lemon played games with hand grenades. That is really a way to make the best of the situation. However I do feel that the story is a bit scattered and there are some points when I do not know who is being spoken of. Overall I find the book interesting, I just feel that some moments are hard to follow and also that the stories do not really connect with each other, aside from the fact that they are about al of the same people.
I thought the stories in “The Things They Carried” were very moving and eye opening. I really like how the book was narrated by Tim O’Brian and he told us everything he did, saw, and felt. He even explained the things that were impossible to explain, like watching someone’s death one day and killing someone else the next. I really enjoyed learning more about the Vietnam war in this way.
1.) The soldiers were all very different men all thrown into the same situation. This particular situation, The Vietnam War, was hard physically and mentally. The book made it seem impossible to get through it alone. At the start of the chapter it really focused on the actual things they had to carry, such as supplies varying from rations and clothing to drugs or comic books. As the story went on it began to open up the emotional things the men carried, for example memories from home. Lt Jimmy Cross was in love with a girl from home, Martha. He carried his unrequited love for Martha. Cross used Martha to cope with being in combat instead of with her. Some parts really show how he wanted her, including when he would lick the envelopes of her letters, knowing her tongue had been there. Later in the book we meet a young soldier who was obsessed with finding the picture of his ex-girlfriend because he needed a single picture to make him keep going and he didn’t know how he would keep going without it.
2.) Most people living in America everyday have never experienced being in a war situation. In the book O’Brian really emphasizes on how hard and confusing it can get out there. Some of the experiences that the soldiers in Vietnam were so different and wrong it’s hard for most people to believe, even for the soldiers to believe. When O’Brian was trying to explain the way Curt Lemon died he couldn’t believe at the time, and twenty years later the image still lay confusingly in his head. Maybe most of the experiences in Vietnam, were experience they didn’t want to remember but that wasn’t anything they could control because bad things did happen no matter if people remember correctly or not.
This novel is amazing. The only complain I could possibly have is I don’t know what is true, and I guess neither does the author. Or the soldiers. Or anyone really. The chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” really illustrates this. On a guerilla battleground there is no sense of direction, because your enemies look like your allies and the jungle itself seems to be attacking you. Telling a true war story isn’t giving a series of factual events, if it were it would just be a history textbook. A true war story isn’t about what actually happened, but a moral. A war story is how you felt, what you saw, what you knew. A true war story is not an obituary or a eulogy for a fallen soldier, but rather an extension of their life, letting them live on in the hearts of others. This truth isn’t clear because there is no one truth in these matters. Sure, some things are factual, such as which day the attack took place on, but others are relative. Was it a surprise attack or did they know about it? Did he die in the attack or was he already dead? Some of these questions seem like they should have answers, but they don’t.
The very definition of war is dying for your cause. If you know that the person next to you is probably gonna die, then you might not want to be too attached to them. Ignorance is bliss, and if you don’t know the name of the boy face-down on the ground, you have less to feel guilty about. Maybe the soldiers didn’t want to connect with each other because they thought they would die. However, the war also brought people together. Many friendships were born and died on those unforgiving battlefields. The soldiers are also afraid. Afraid to let anyone else know that they are afraid.
I love this book. I find myself choosing to read this over literally anything else, be it watching a movie, doing homework or even sleeping, which is not something I can usually say. This book illustrates what it’s like to be in the battles, not just watching from the sidelines like all the other war stories I have read. This book also raises the question of “How much is a human life worth?”, as it may vary. A poor vietnamese boy? According to a higher-up official, nothing. A fellow soldier? The world. But in all, what can we learn from Vietnam? Avoid getting into wars we have no business in? Well, Dick Cheney already screwed that up. Have respect for other countries’ forms of governments? Hah! As if! So what can I do? What can I do to put these souls to rest, how can I learn from our mistakes? This book not only asks these questions, but puts steps me forward in the right direction.
1. During the Vietnam War, physical objects and emotional burdens continuously built up and weighed down on the soldiers. Combat is described as fun but terrifying, thrilling but drudgery. It’s a traumatizing experience to watch several people die in front of your eyes. One second you could be talking about anything, but the next a bomb could easily shatter anything normal. Some soldiers never know hope to cope. There might not be a way to cope with some of the horrors witnessed. Some remind themselves of how things are at home. They fantasize about girls or anything else that could take their mind far away from reality. Some remind themselves of that they are serving their country. They tell themselves to make their fathers or mothers or country proud. They want to be able to return with great and impressive tales. Some use telling stories and remembering as a way to cope for when they return. They couldn’t forget, so they had to talk about their stories. They could tell stories about how they showed courage or of the terrors they experienced. They found their own ways to try and help them deal with their experience.
4. Most of those fighting went for the same reasons: make someone proud, fight for their country, or they were drafted. These were not the only reasons, of course. Because these people were in the war for these reasons, you could say soldiers like Tim and others are motivated by not feeling the shame of letting others down. A lot of parents felt so proud of their son for going to fight. Dads expected to see medals to be proud of. Soldiers did not want to let down their parents. On top of the stress from war, they would not want to return to disappointment. Some men felt a great surge of nationalism and they did not to let their country down. Their main priority was to serve the country give Americans something to be proud of. Those who were drafted probably wanted to something of their time. To go to war and return, could be a disappointment to themselves. Another reason to be motivated by not letting others down is if a soldier witnesses someone die. In some stories, the men talked about blaming themselves for deaths. Then, they wanted to continue or try and fix the situation in their friend’s name.
I’m glad I was assigned to read this book because otherwise I would not have even thought of picking it up. I think it’s very interesting and helps you feel like the situation was real. Hearing someone’s story, even if fictional, helped me better understand the Vietnam War. I love listening to stories, even if these could be tragic. In some places, I think the writing was inconsistent. For instance in the chapter “On the Rainy River”, the man described everything very detailed and dragged everything out, but he suddenly ended it and summed it all up in around three sentences. It was interesting, but hard to get through because he vividly remembered everything and felt the need to share it. Which I do get because that was a big time in his life and he is likely to remember so much. It helped pain an image though. I also was confused about what point of view it was in. I couldn’t tell if it changed each chapter or if the same guy just talked. Overall I enjoyed it and I would recommend it to someone interested in history.
Self Assessment:
Tim O’Brien’s The Things they carried is a story regarding soldiers in the Vietnam War, the hardships that they face, and all of the lessons that they learned through their experiences in the book. Overall, I really enjoy this novel. This book has historical background, and is based off of real life experiences which give an extra sense of intrigue to the novel. I also really enjoy this book because of the emotion tied to each story, and the background information which ties to what we are currently learning.
3.
In the novel, even though the soldiers are surrounded by each other, they still struggle to make a genuine connection with each other, they can’t seem to find a sense of trust in each other. I believe that this is mainly due to the fact that they were drafted into the war. When soldiers are drafted into the war, it takes always their free will, and demotivated them to fight for their country. Being drafted into the war as opposed to volunteering makes it tough for the soldiers to have a connection, considering that they probably don’t want to be there at all. I believe that the fact that war is horrifying also adds to the fact that they can’t develop a connection. In War you face many traumatic experiences, and it can do 1 of 2 things either draw you closer to each other, or tear you apart.
4.
I think the general idea of shame is a great motivating factor. The idea of having to omit defeat to a country as small as Vietnam, and shaming the country they worked so hard to defend would be almost embarrassing. America has developed a reputation for themselves after hundreds of years, and the thought of destroying the reputation worked really well as a motivating factor in the novel. They don’t want to feel like they didn’t do enough to protect their country, when there is so much pressure to win this war.
This book has been incredibly interesting to me so far, and I think that is because of how honest the stories are. I have seen many movies and read a few books on wars and the stories told by the soldiers in them, and it wasn’t until the author mentioned it in one of the chapters that I realized how glorified these stories were. While tragedy occurs more often than not in cinematic war tales these tragedies are just a piece of plot that leads to the happy ending and moral that pursues. The way Tim O’Brien recounts his stories are brutally honest, especially in how he wrote about the way Curt Lemon died and how his sister never responded to Rat Kiley’s emotional letter. I was a lot more drawn to the book than I would have been if Tim had decided to sugar-coat his experiences. These harsh truths of the war brought me to the conclusion that war can be one of the most lonely experiences one can have. Sure the men are all witnessing and being a part of the same terrible war, but they are all struggling with different things. Developing connections with other comrades may have provided a temporary distraction, however in the case of Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley, the loss of such a friend during the war could have a heavy emotional impact on a soldier. What the point of getting that close to someone in such a dangerous time if it will just result in more pain, when the chances of getting killed or witnessing a friend die are high as the deaths of the war keeps increasing. Even if the victim wasn’t a close friend, soldiers still felt guilt when one of their comrades fell. The shame of letting another person down motivated soldiers in the stories by inspiring them to focus more on the war to get themselves or their men out alive. The death of Ted Lavender did this for Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Lt. Cross decided to take the blame, and then became set on giving all he had to his men and the war despite the fact that doing so could distance himself from the group and make him unpopular among the troops. Even here Lt. Cross isn’t getting close to any of his men, as he wanted no distraction as he did the best he could to perform his duty in the war.
In the novel The Things They Carried, the soldier go through a time of great loneliness and isolation while in Vietnam. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main one could very well be because they did not get the decision of if they wanted to come or not. They were drafted into the war. Many of them did not want to be in the war, but rather with their families. This is also another reason that they may feel lonely. They are far away from their families and even though they are will their fellow soldiers they are not with the ones that they truly need in a time like this. Also, they might not connect with their fellow soldiers. At home they are friends with the people that are in a way like them. In the war they have no choice, but to work with these other people. This could lead to the soldiers feeling lonely and isolated.
I feel that same or the idea of letting people down really motivates the characters in this novel. Even if the soldiers don’t really want to be doing this they know that they have to so they don’t let their families down. The fact that they were drafted and did not get a choice of joining the war or not does not matter. Also, they might not want to feel ashamed or embarrassed if they can’t protect their country. They don’t want people to see them as a bad person and for that reason the fear of letting people down really motivates them.
I really enjoy to read this novel. I do not find myself at any point not interested or wanting to see what is going to happen next. I enjoy the idea of seeing war from the perspective of someone that was drafted into it. This could change there opinion on how they do things because of the fact that they did not get a choice of joining or not. It did however, make me start thinking about how I would react if I was drafted into a war or if i was in their situation. I really would be upset, but get over it and think more about not letting my country or family down. The draft has been abolished in the end so unless it comes back which I do not see happening I do not have to be put into such a tough situation.
The book The Things They Carry has definitely been a great read so far. Normally, in terms of the books I look forward to reading, nonfiction is rarely on that list. But, because of recent English projects, I have been more open to reading true stories. This book is one true story that I really have enjoyed reading and am having a hard time putting it down at home. I specifically enjoy the fact that this book is more of a series of short stories; it makes a more interesting read to hear from different perspectives that all connect to form one main idea – Tim’s experience throughout the war – without a particular order. The story is really made by the way it tells the full truth and nothing but it; everything is said the way it happened, which can make the book hard to get through at certain points, but it makes you realize everything Tim had to survive.
3. There are multiple reasons soldiers in this book don’t connect on very strong level. However, I think the most likely reason is the prospect of dying. Because every man carries the weight of frightened courage, every man also knows the full extent of the danger they are in. For most, death is easier to handle when the person dying isn’t close to you; because of how often people die fighting, carrying the weight of all those emotions would push ever soldier over the edge. By preventing such closeness from forming, the soldiers only have to carry the burden they brought with them. Like Lieutenant Cross, who kept his relationships in his head, grief for Lavender was easier to handle. On the other end, like Kiowa, without that connection there was no grief at all. This way, even though they carry the worry of people dying, they won’t have to carry the grief of every single death.
4. In my opinion, the heaviest object each soldier has to carry is the prospect of letting people down. Heavier than any gun or supply, the thought that they are responsible for losing the war can, and will, destroy someone. Also, the thought that everyone back home, everyone that cares about them and everyone who doesn’t, is depending on them to save America is a thought that has so much pressure attached to it. In any given situation, even in the smallest of battles that are lost, soldiers can blame themselves for the fail. This weight of failure is attached to the thought of disappointment, and it only gets heavier with time. With this fear also comes the inability to think properly, which ultimately results in higher chances of failure, which adds even more crushing weight to the backs of soldiers. Each soldier knows how important their job is, and they also know that losing isn’t an option, especially with an entire country counting on you.
1. The soldiers didn’t only carry physical objects that helped them remember a better time and place, they also had to carry mental and emotional thing which would either raise them up or drag them down. Ted Lavender was almost always terrified of the war, had to carry emotion until he got shot and killed during the war. The rest of the soldiers in Ted’s troop had to carry the fact that it was their fault the Ted died that no one was watching out for him while he went to the bathroom, especially Lt. Jimmy Cross. He was the head of the troop and took to himself most of the blame for Ted’s death, not only was he carrying around this Lt. Cross was in love with a girl that didn’t love him back he felt distracted by his love and believed this is what caused him to not pay attention to when Ted left without protection.
4. Shame or the idea of letting someone down motivates Tim and the other soldiers because none of them want to carry around the blame of someone or a few people’s deaths in their troop. The soldiers already have enough mental baggage to carry around that they don’t need or want any more. If one soldier dose something dumb that ends in a catastrophic loss for his troop or country he would not only be letting himself down, but he would also be letting down his troop, his family, and his country. Even if a soldier messes up and at least tries to cover up for himself would be more respected than the man who ran to Canada to avoid the army or the man who injured himself so he could leave.
So far I have really enjoyed this book, it is very interesting and I like how it contains a bunch of little stories as opposed to just one long mission. I find it very intriguing to hear this story from a veteran’s point of view and what he had to go through as opposed to hearing is on the news where they just say what they want to say instead of the whole story.
I really enjoyed Tim O’Brien’s book, The Things They Carried. I was compelled by the stories of harsh conditions the soldiers were experiencing during the war, along some of the other stories that had a bit of comic relief. Reading this book made me realize, or at least understand better how grueling, scary, violent, and sometimes even boring The Vietnam War was. I also liked how O’Brien told all of the gory, and gross details, it made me really picture the war, and I felt like I was there experiencing it with the men who fought in it.
One: During the war, soldiers had to carry all of their equipment, helmets, food, tarps for the rain, their weapons, and whatever else they felt was necessary. All of these things were very heavy and some probably weighed well over 50 lbs. All of this weight didn’t compare to the guilt and emotional weight they carried around with them during, but mostly after the war. Everyone made mistakes like for example Lieutenant Jimmy Cross made the decision of camping out in a shit field. That night they were ambushed and one of his men died, Lieutenant Cross felt this was his fault because if he had told his men to keep going and camp at higher ground, none of it would have happened. Things like this happened a lot, where soldiers felt it was their fault if someone had died, and often after the war, they would find themselves replaying the situation over in their head, wondering if they could have done something different to save someone.
Four: Soldiers fighting in Vietnam felt they needed to be brave, they didn’t want to wuss out because they wanted to prove to their family, their friends, and the other men fighting that they were strong. For example, when Tim got drafted he ran away, he tried to go across the border to Canada, but he couldn’t get himself to do it, he didn’t want to let his family, or people in town think that he was being a coward by running away. He felt that he didn’t really have a choice, he had to fight for his honor.
The soldiers stand together physically, sure, but I don’t quite think they are mutually there for each other. After the way they saw Curt Lemon die, they feel that there truly is no mercy, and it is nearly impossible to survive the war. Their courage diminishes, and their pride degrades. The men do their best to pull together, but when they fight each other on something as insignificant as a jackknife, it proves that it takes more than just being from the same country to have mutual trust. They’re scared, they’re tired, and they want to go home. They hear grueling tales of what happens to their fellow soldiers, ARVN, and even V.C. throughout the war. Winning the war and pulling together is not what they want to do- they just want to go home. That is the reason they don’t completely stand together
Shame motivates men sometimes as much as pride does. The one example i will provide is when Tim is called to war, and he tries to evade it by running away to Canada. He spends about a week on the rainy river in northern Minnesota to make up his mind. He spends the entire time thinking about how the war goes against everything he believes (“I was a LIBERAL for Christ’s sake”) and that he is doing the right thing by running up north…but he then thinks of the shame he will be put through when he returns home. His family name would be spit upon, he would be called a Communist, things like that. He ends up leaving to Vietnam on Will Call to possibly be killed, but to avoid being shamed.
I personally enjoy this book- after having many family members fight in Wars (Three in Vietnam) i feel like alot of my family can relate to it…the book is also food for thought for me, because i plan on going into the military after college someday. I’ve heard many stories of what war does to you, but so have the Brave Men and Women who have fought defending our soil. They know that Defending their families and way of life back home may come with a cost, a cost they are willing to pay. The book helps me to understand what people go through overseas, and gives me a larger sense of appreciation for our troops. This is a definite re-read for me.
The soldiers stand together physically, sure, but I don’t quite think they are mutually there for each other. After the way they saw Curt Lemon die, they feel that there truly is no mercy, and it is nearly impossible to survive the war. Their courage diminishes, and their pride degrades. The men do their best to pull together, but when they fight each other on something as insignificant as a jackknife, it proves that it takes more than just being from the same country to have mutual trust. They’re scared, they’re tired, and they want to go home. They hear grueling tales of what happens to their fellow soldiers, ARVN, and even V.C. throughout the war. Winning the war and pulling together is not what they want to do- they just want to go home. That is the reason they don’t completely stand together
Shame motivates men sometimes as much as pride does. The one example i will provide is when Tim is called to war, and he tries to evade it by running away to Canada. He spends about a week on the rainy river in northern Minnesota to make up his mind. He spends the entire time thinking about how the war goes against everything he believes (“I was a LIBERAL for Christ’s sake”) and that he is doing the right thing by running up north…but he then thinks of the shame he will be put through when he returns home. His family name would be spit upon, he would be called a Communist, things like that. He ends up leaving to Vietnam on Will Call to possibly be killed, but to avoid being shamed.
I personally enjoy this book- after having many family members fight in Wars (Three in Vietnam) i feel like alot of my family can relate to it…the book is also food for thought for me, because i plan on going into the military after college someday. I’ve heard many stories of what war does to you, but so have the Brave Men and Women who have fought defending our soil. They know that Defending their families and way of life back home may come with a cost, a cost they are willing to pay. The book helps me to understand what people go through overseas, and gives me a larger sense of appreciation for our troops. This is a definite re-read for me, and i would totally recommend it for a hungry bookworm.
In the novel, The Things They Carried I think the shame of disappointing their country, South Vietnam and the whole world did motivate O’Brien and his soldiers throughout the story. They didn’t want to let down their country specifically the government because they knew America’s reputation and pride was on the line especially after the “Bay of Pigs” humiliation. They also didn’t want to disappoint the world and South Vietnamese because the US government had made many promises to help and protect them against the Communist North Vietnamese. So, if they went back on any of these promises they would be letting down many people and also known as an untrustworthy country.
The truth in a true war story is not always clear because as O’Brien explains in “How To Tell a True War Story” its difficult to separate what happened and what seemed to had happened. He uses an example of witnessing a death. How you look and look away constantly because losing a friend could be surreal. Then once you try to share the story to feeling of surreal seemingness makes the story seem untrue but it ironically shows the truth of what you seemed. O’Brien also states how everyone has different angles of vision and how pictures get jumbled and how you tend to miss a lot, which I believe we could all conclude that shock and PTSD could be contributing factors as to why this all happens. This contradicts the “true story” because if your retelling the story based off what you thought happened and not what really happened your basically not telling the true story.
I personally like the book because I like the point of view the novel is put in. Hearing the stories from a fellow soldiers point of view to me is better than hearing it from an historian or press. As Tim O’Brien being the narrator you get an inside look on what it was like instead of from a third party. I like how there are many stories within the one novel and how all of the stories tell exhilarating experiences. I also like how the personalities of some of the characters are because it really diminishes the picture that I had painted in my head of the ideal soldier which I made out to be a serious, stern, mean man. But in the novel O’Brien paints a few of them as goofy and fun, which really helped me connect more with the story. Overall “The Things They Carried” is a good book.
Tim O’ Brien’s book, The Things They Carried, details the story of American soldiers in the war in Vietnam and the daunting challenges that they were forced to overcome. The soldiers of the Alpha Company seemed to get along fine with one another at most times, but they seemed to never be able to connect with each other. They were encountered with the invisible danger of loneliness, but still were not able to share and feel connections with the soldiers they stood by day in and day out. I believe that the loneliness of the soldiers was due to the fact that they were drafted, and also a bit because of the simple fact that war is one of the loneliest experiences possible. Since the soldiers were drafted, it almost guarantees that many have different views and opinions on the war, as seen throughout the text.
I also believe in the simple fact that war is an extraordinarily lonely experience, and it is hard to connect with anyone when you are constantly fighting for your country, and your life.
During any war, I believe that shame and the idea of letting down your fellow soldiers motivates you to do your absolute best. You should fight for the person standing next to you, and they should fight for you. Throughout the story, I think that it is evident a countless number of times that each soldier, including Tim, is fighting for the people that are around them. They all have families, and all are trying their best to make it to the end of the war. They realize that if they fail, they will be faced with great shame, and their fellow soldiers may never respect them the same again. I also believe that this idea focuses on the fact that in the Vietnam War, our soldiers are fighting for the protection and freedom of Southern Vietnam. If they are to fail, they will be letting down millions of people from Vietnam to back home in America. For example, at one point in the story Tim is faced with the choice of fleeing America for Canada, and it is only a short swim away for him. He knows that he could easily do it, but knows how much shame he will bring upon himself and his family if he chooses this option. This instance clearly demonstrates how the soldiers are motivated by shame and by not letting down fellow soldiers.
So far, I am really enjoying this book. It is moving that it is all real, and at what point this really did happen to men who were at one day just like us. I feel like it helps teach a lesson, and is also very interesting at the same time. It makes me want to keep reading about the struggles the men were faced with.
The book The Things They Carried, is so far a fantastic read. I have only heard stories about Vietnam through those shared in class, and through generic accounts that don’t really show the true struggles of the war. I like how this book shares very personal memories of what it was really like to be in Vietnam; the stories give me a deep understanding of how traumatic and gruesome the war really was. I had no idea how damaging the draft process was until I read this book, and I also had no clue what an emotional hardship it must have been to have lost a comrade to a terrible war.
1. Many of the soldiers were miserable and lonely, understandably. Everyday, the soldiers carried 50 or more pounds of equipment— a physical burden to all. In addition to this physical pain, many missed lovers, friends, family, or former coworkers, and their chances of seeing them again seemed very slim. To rid this depression, the soldiers usually did not take anything seriously. They tried to keep humor and sarcasm alive while in combat. They joked around and harshly insulted those around them. They also tried to never dwell in sadness— if a comrade died, they would not mourn and weep for a long time, but they would quickly try to get over their sadness. Also, the soldiers would attempt to remember why they are fighting in the first place: for the United States of America— the greatest nation on Earth.
3. Most soldiers in the war felt lonely and emotionally abandoned, as mentioned. The American soldiers never seemed to attract to one another or create a strong bond between each other. This is partially because they almost had no choice to be there— the draft got them before they had the chance to decide what they wanted to do with their life. This feeling of being stripped of freedom caused many soldiers to feel isolated and depressed, and unwilling to make friends. I think the other main reason that there weren’t strong relationships on the battlefield was due to the fact that the soldiers feared death. They knew that being killed was common, and they feared that if they became close friends with someone, they would be deeply scarred if they died in battle. This fear of losing a close friend may have steered the soldiers away from forming friendships.
In the novel, The Things They Carried, is about a group of soldiers who are members of the Alpha Company and are shipped off to Vietnam to fight in the war. They go through things that nobody should ever go through in their life, and going to Vietnam was like going to a foreign world. In Vietnam, they would experience horrific deaths of both brothers and foes, bombing of innocent villages and the worst weather conditions.
1. In the beginning of the first chapter of the story, the author created a list of all the physical items that they carried. The list talked about everything for photographs of their girlfriends back home or the weapons/ supplies that they used in combat. But as the war goes on, they start carrying emotional baggage as well. The things like watching their companions get shot to death or even taking the life of a North Vietnamese or Viet Cong. Like Tim O’Brian said, he doesn’t necessarily want to fight in this war because he doesn’t believe in it. I think that statement made matters worse than they already were because they don’t believe it’s worth dying for, all the lives lost and injured men for a war that we were in no position to be in. The war also causes a lot of post-traumatic stress disorder, which is a very serious mental illness. The men are forever scared from this gruesome war. When Kiowa died, they said they needed somebody to blame. It could have been the enemy, another member from your team, or even the people who started this war. But in a lot of cases they blamed themselves, thinking that it should have been them. The guilt that the men had to carry about the lives effected in this war is unbearable. They managed to cope with the blame and death by making a joke during the situation and try not to get emotionally attached.
3. The men in Vietnam feel lonely and are isolated. Majority of these men were drafted and had no free will in signing up to fight for their lives. The only people that truly know them are their friends and family who are thousands of miles away. Sure you become close with these men but they aren’t themselves. The war, from my take of the book, changes people from everything they have experienced. As stated before they have to mask their emotions and if you missed someone back home it would be hard to bring them up because you know you wouldn’t see them for a while. Covering your emotions makes it hard to really connect with people who are doing the same.
From what we have read of the book, I have found fascinating. I like that it only tells stories from one specific group compared to different people all over the war. It gives you a chance to connect and see how they are feeling through this scary experience. It also gives you the full truth of what went on, and makes it feel as you were there with them.
1.In the book “The Things They Carried,” all of the soldiers introduced carried something; “Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, Henry Dobbins carried extra rations, Dave Jensen carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and hotel-size soap bars, Ted Lavender carried tranquilizers, Mitchell Sanders carried condoms, Norman Bowker carried a diary, Rat Kelly carried comic books, Kiowa carried an illustrated New Testament and an old hatchet. No matter how much their extra items weighed they still took them they were essential, a reminder of home and hope, kept them sane or drove them crazy. Reminders of the world they came from as Vietnam seemed a world away. They items they carried were something that tied them down when they where humping across the terrain of Vietnam.
4. If you where drafted to war and you didn’t go you where ridiculed, mocked, teased called a coward, and at the time it brought a man shame an unbearable shame. For Tim he absolutely didn’t want to have to go to war so much so that he almost escaped into Canada, but he couldn’t bear the shame and dishonor he’d bring to his family. Couldn’t take the guilt of running and never going back he would leave his wife and sons behind, but he’d do so even if he went to war and ran the risk of dying at the drop of a hat. A man has only so much pride and even if they know it isn’t right and try to stand their ground they will have to endure constant ridicule and some can look past it but many others can’t they lose their resolve and go; they wouldn’t be able to look people in the eye and talk to them.
1) Soldiers coped with being in combat in a lot of different ways. Some would carry dope or tranquillizers with them to release the stress of combat. One example of this is how Ted Lavender used to carry 6 to 7 ounces of dope with him to release stress. Others would carry would carry things from loved ones. One example of this is Jimmy Cross carrying the letters from a college girl Martha with him because it reminded her of him and most likely it reminded him of home. Some men would cope with being in combat by carrying things of the lord. An example of this is Kiowa who carried a copy of the New Testament from his father. Even after war men would still have to cope with have been in combat. A lot of men would have a ton of stress so they would do something to relax them self’s like find a hobby. Others would not be able to control the stress and they would suffer from PTSD. This is how men coped with being in combat.
3) Men may fell alone in the jungle of Vietnam even though they are surrounded by their comrades. I think the men feel alone because they don’t know these men outside of the war. These may be in a squadron but they may not share the bond they need to. If they had this bond they might not feel as alone. The men also might feel alone because they don’t want to be in Vietnam fighting this war most likely. Some of the men may have wanted to be there but a lot of the men don’t want to be in Vietnam because they are supposed be at home in college of starting a new job, not fighting a war. If the men that were fighting in Vietnam then they might have felt less alone because they knew their comrades wanted to be there as well.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien was a good book and is a good read for anyone that is interested in the history of the Vietnam War. It also probably helped Tim O’Brien and other solders to read this because that way people know what it was like to be in the Jungles instead of your home
So far in reading The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, I am much more informed about the American soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War. I do not particularly enjoy this book mainly because I am not interested in reading war stories. O’Brien’s writing has easily painted a picture in my mind of the characters and the circumstances which I give him props for. He deeply explains the circumstances the soldiers had to endure over in Vietnam. I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys reading about war, even though I do not particularly enjoy the story line.
2. Regarding the novel, truth is not only clear and that is deeply examined in the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story”. The true story may have so many unbelievable events in it and real life circumstances are inserted into it to make the reader or listener believe what the author is trying to convey. With war, there is no clarity and a definite meaning to each story. Many truths are contradictory as well. Some would argue that the war was horrendous, but others would see the side of the war being beautiful because of the majesty of combat. The truth also always has two sides regarding life outside of the novel.
4. Shame and the idea of letting another person down motivated Tim and other soldiers in the novel to become utterly fearless and extremely courageous. The soldiers are so passionate about not letting anyone down including their own country they will go to combat and deal with the effect of the draft. When Ted Lavender died, another soldier Jimmy Cross began to feel shame and believed it was his fault because he was extremely focused on a girl named Martha back in the United States. This resulted in him burning her letters and him attempting to drop the thoughts of her completely. Overall shame motivated the soldiers to continue fighting in hopes of not being thought of as a coward.
Reflection: The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien is a series of short war stories taking place in Vietnam. I have enjoyed reading the book so far. It started out boring but after a while I got more connected with the characters and it’s really interesting. I like seeing things from their perspective because I’ve never really read a book that was as explicit as this one about the war. The only other thing I’ve seen that is like this book is Saving Private Ryan. I like how every chapter focuses on a new story, because it keeps me interested. I like how the chapters flow really well into each other and how you get to know characters referenced in multiple books, like one book will be from the perspective of someone and the next will be talking about that person from the view of someone else. The book also makes me really grateful that there aren’t things like drafts today, especially after reading On The Rainy River.
2. The truth in war is often muddled because people forget things, embellish things, or in certain times can’t distinguish reality from imagination. Soldiers sometimes have to distort their own memories to cope with events. Tim from “How to Tell a True War Story” lists many ways you can tell if a war story is true. At one point, he says that you can tell a true war story if by after hearing it you ask “Is it true?” and the answer matters. He then tells a story about a soldier who jumped on a grenade to save his friends but they all died anyway. Tim said “That’s a true story that never happened.” This is a clear example of the contradictory nature of war stories.
4. Shame is a big motivation for many soldiers to go to war. If a soldier gets drafted but runs away to Canada to escape, he will forever be labelled a coward. He also can never return to the U.S and visit his family or he’d get arrested. Tim comes very close to running away, he in Canadian waters and only a few dozen feet from the shore but he still can’t force himself to do it. The thought of being a shame to his family and being called a deserter was too much for him. A soldier who deserts let’s all his family and friends down.
questions on coping and shame influencing them:
The Things They Carried is a war story, Obrien explained that when telling a true war story, there is no morale or theme, instead it was just an endless story, that most of the time made you cringe or blush from embarrassment. He said that war stories were told as a way to preserve memories, just as other story genres are used for also. They show the raw, unedited side of the life of the soldiers. Complex characters, actual human beings, with their faults and beauty in a whole. Reading this story, some stories make believe that some of these soldiers had lost some of their sanity, by copping in these strange ways, like Henry Dobbins who wore his girlfriends’ panty hose around his neck as a comforter and motivation. Or Rat Kiley who mourned his friends death, by shooting a baby buffalo into oblivion. It seems as if sometimes these soldiers could not cope with their guilt of ransacking and destroying a village, or shooting an innocent man or child. Even today, soldier’s cannot cope with the horrors they saw in war, coming back home as a completely different person, having seen the horrors of death and death knocking at the front door. The worst part was many of the soldiers were just kids, young adults who had never lived by themselves before, and had never felt the importance of being the one people depended on for survival. In the Vietnam War these men were sent into a war that most didn’t believe in, but the feeling of shaming their family or letting down the nation forced them to come to this moist jungle. Even in the little things, shame carried a large burden on these soldiers. Not wanting to be known as the wimp, or as Obrien called it, “the yellow mother”, the soldiers would fool around with a smoke grenade, and throw back and forth till it exploded. The soldiers carried around shame, and sentimental which motivated them to live through the war, even if many of their comrades where dying beside them.
1. I can only imagine how hard it is to be a soldier in a war. Soldiers have to have a lot of courage to do what they do knowing that they could die at any possible second but still choose to go on. I also imagine that it would be hard to cope with being a soldier, away from you family, home, and not knowing anyone. They couldn’t carry much with them but most of them carried an item from home that either reminded them of someone or of something. They also used humor to lighten the mood and to get away from the war for a little while. But when things got real rough they would lean on each other for support because for their own sanity they had to let somethings out instead of keeping them bottles inside.
2. In chapter, “How to Tell a True War Story”, the writer tells us many stories that we have to interpret and figure out for ourselves if they are true or not. The truth wasn’t always clear in the novel at the end of the chapter the writer states that he could have been lying and that none of the stories were real. It was also hard while reading the chapter to be sure if it was real or if he was making it up. I think that the purpose of telling stories for veterans is to come to an understanding of the war and accept what had happened. The veteran can make it anyway they want because they were there and the person that they are telling it to wasn’t and so then they don’t know if it’s the truth or a lie.
Assessment.
I the first night that I read the book I hated it because I thought it was weird and this guy was way too obsessed with Martha. But then I started talking to my friend about it and she explained to me why he was so obsessed and why there was a whole chapter just about the things the people carried. Then it hit me that he and all the other guys are just doing what they have to do to survive, if obsessing over a girl keeps him going the go for it. Once I got passed that I actually stated to enjoy the book, not because I could relate to it what so ever, but because as I read it I could almost feel their pain and loneliness. My favorite chapter so far was “On the Rainy River” because while I was reading it I totally got how hard it must be to be so close to freedom but still feel the pull to do your duty to your country. That must be how all the soldiers felt before they decided to go to war and it must have been a very hard decision. So far I have really enjoyed the book because the author uses great language and descriptive detail so that the reader can almost feel what the character feels.
Let me just start of by saying that I have very missed feeling about this novel. This, in fact, is not only because of the Genre of the book but also because of how inconvenient it is to be reading the book at this time. With THAT being said, The Things They carried captures the time spent of a group of American Soldiers in the Vietnam War. How this book differs from other books about Vietnam is that it is completely fiction, the character’s in the story don’t really exist. Thus, the beauty of the story lies in the way Tim O’Brien reveals the soldiers observation, deepest feelings, and how the war reflects on there life. (1) In a war (which you had no decision in being in) so brutal these men struggled to hold on to there sanity and humanness, to not let the influence get to them, and if it did, to find someway. So, they had fun with what they could make of it. If someone died (ex. Ted Lavender) they might crack a joke to try to ease the pain. Some made excuses for the deeds that the war required of them; they would argue with them, trying to believe that everything was O.K. Love, for a person back home was the key for a few. The thought of something to return to would help to encourage to few hope these men had left in them. (3) The reason for “friendship” during the Vietnam War, and only reason, is because of the dark realization of what could and probably will happen. Most just need someone to tread with. Therefor, despite personalities or morals, they stuck together to have someone to carry the weight of the war. This doesn’t mean that anyone was besties. Right after any epidemics were over with, the men would go back to the dark realization of where they were and act accordingly.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brian is a compelling novel and is easily one I won’t quickly forget. It brings together the elements of love and hate, fear and excitement, hope and dread in a provocatively cunning masterpiece. O’Brian shares with us fictional – yet truthful to the realities of War – testimonies by common place boys and men who you might pass walking down the street. In few words big-picture ideas are expressed, forcing the reader to look at the world in a new light. Reading The Things They Carried has opened me up to an understanding of the war beyond the basic facts we go over in class. I has helped me to appreciate the strenuous positions our soldiers faced for, what reasons? After having read this book I will never be able to look at war the same way again.
2. In war there never is a right or wrong answer. You only have your personal beliefs and the beliefs of your nation to go off of. There are decisions that will be made that, if done anywhere else than on the battle field, would be considered immeasurably wrong however the war gives them new meanings. For example, Rat Kiley’s memorable decision to torture the baby water buffalo in retaliation for his best friend Curt Lemon’s death. The innocent water buffalo of course was not the one who killed Lemon, but the buffalo represented Vietnam and all the pain and suffering that country was bringing the soldiers. Somehow the whole troop understood this connection and numbly allowed it to proceed. Another contradictory truth is worded perfectly in the chapter How to Tell a War Story, “War is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty. For all its horror, you can’t help but gape at the awful majesty of combat…like a killer forest fire, like cancer under a microscope…a true war story will tell you the truth about this, though the truth is ugly.” This quote says how aesthetic war can be. It is terrifying, but the pure potent power of War is somehow breathtakingly beautiful. Similar to the innate splendor of a cluster of cells from cancer – a deadly disease – war is both the proclamation of death and the defiance of it.
4. Shame is a major player in the not so friendly game of war. It has the capacity to tear people down, make them into raw versions of themselves, and to test their inner beings. In On the Rainy River Time is so ashamed of himself he can’t make his own decisions. Way out on the outskirts of America he couldn’t even get away from the domineering presence of his family and friends for long enough to find inner peace. He longed for the dream-like freedom of Canada, but his built in shame forced him to acknowledge its impossibility. Tim was motivated indirectly by his loved ones to suck it up and go to war, or, in his eyes, cowardly hang his head and listen to their orders, instead of risking a free life in Canada through shame.
1. The soldiers coped with being in combat by trying to make the best of it. They made jokes, carried things from home, tried to take care of themselves as best as they could, but sometimes they just lost it. To quote from the book, “Now and then, however, there were times of panic, when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn’t, when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said Dear Jesus and flopped around on the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and sobbed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and to God and to their mothers and fathers, hoping not to die.” This quote shows how the soldiers lost it sometimes and had mental breakdowns. Being in a brutal situation like war, really messed up these men. The men didn’t talk about their feelings and instead made jokes when someone died. For example, when Ted Lavender died they joked about how high he was off of tranquilizers. The men carried things from home that meant something to them. Jimmy Cross carried a pebble, pictures, and letters from his girlfriend, Norman Bowker carried a diary, Rat Kiley carried comic books, and Kiowa carried the Old Testament. They carried something that reminded them of who they were and where they belong, which helped them get through the war.
3. Although the soldiers are surrounded by their comrades in arms, many don’t feel a connection to each other because it’s hard to bond in the war. Personally, I’ve never been in a war but I can image that it must be hard to bond. I guess you could talk about how many people you killed that day, but these soldiers were drafted into a war they didn’t want to fight. War is a new experience for these young men and they are scared out of their minds. This is why they carry the things they do, to remember where they come from. Also I think that the men are afraid to connect with one another. We see this with Rat Kiley when his best friend Curt Lemon dies right in front of him. Rat Kiley then had a mental breakdown and murdered a water buffalo in front of the other soldiers. When the soldiers saw someone go crazy when loosing someone they cared for made them realize that they don’t want to connect because they don’t want to loose each other.
So far, I’ve enjoyed the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. I’ve never read a book about war before because I thought it was going to be boring when it turned out to be interesting. When talking about the Vietnam War in class, I think about how it effected the government but never the soldiers who are actually doing the fighting. To read a soldiers memoir from the war we are learning about gives me a different perspective and helps me understand the war more. Lastly, the book shows me how harsh war can be and the effects it has on the soldiers.
1. The soldiers carried a myriad of things on them through out the novel, ranging from a finger to a picture of a girl back home. All of these things and their packs didn’t come close to the emotional weight that they also held, many of these men were depressed beyond belief. This emotional toll is perfectly shown with the death of Ted Lavender, when he leaves the group to use the bathroom he is shot by a sniper. The members of his platoon think that it is their fault for not being on their toes or any other things that could have been avoided that would have kept Lavender alive. This shows how the soldiers blame themselves for things that are more or less out of their control. I believe that the soldiers don’t cope with the emotional toll of war, blaming yourself for something that was easily missed is no way to cope with anything.
4. I think that a big undertone of the Vietnam war in all was the inability to swallow your pride. This is shown in Johnson being to proud to pull out of the war, he cannot face the fact that this is an unwinnable war and that it will be years before we will leave from his plans. This is also shown in the book, the soldiers don’t want to leave knowing that there was more that they could have done. The undertone of the war made it unwinnable and harder to get out of.
All in all I think that the book is pretty good. I enjoy the characters but I don’t like that the stories are scattered around with the people and the time and many other details that makes it a little hared to follow. I also think that this is still an important subject for a novel, it has a very close resemblance to the war in Iraq, with the soldiers always wondering where and enemy may be and who it may be. This similarity makes it not an ancient relic being about a war that was 45 years ago, but it also has a vibe that makes the story seem more relatable. So all things considered I like the book because of the relevance, but I don’t like the bouncing around everywhere to tell the story.
3. I think that the reason the soldiers feel an unprecedented amount of loneliness and isolation and no connection to each other is because they have been drafted into a war they don’t want to fight. For most men, the draft brought them into this war not because of volunteering to go. Because most of them are already being brought in against their will, there is no motivation or willingness to create a sense of brotherhood among their troops or a sense of love/joy. They simply want to carry out their orders with honor and get out of Vietnam. For some soldiers, this does not include laughter and fun, but strict discipline and order. When all you want to do is finish and leave, why bother to make friends? This would leave the soldiers lonely and isolated. I also think a lack of morale was made worse when the men arrived or were in combat and could really see firsthand how unorganized this war really was. This would just make the young men question the war even more than they already had, and in turn making themselves more isolated.
4.The idea of shame motivated all of the soldiers tremendously, one could make a case for saying that this was the main reason most of the young men were trying to fight honorably in the first place. The idea of embarrassing his family was the only reason Tim O’Brien did not cross the border into Canada to escape the draft. Most of these soldiers came from families that cared about patriotism and honor, so being a son, it was felt as their duty to bring that a honor to their family. Most felt that if they acted cowardly by getting hurt or even showing sadness could bring the whole image of their family down to their entire community.
I really enjoyed reading this book. I thought it did a great job of showing what the soldiers really felt during their time in Vietnam. The descriptions of the other men and the setting makes you feel like you are really there with them. I liked how you got to see the different lingo they used and how their language helped the to cope with the horrors of war. But, the vivid imagery and all the terrible things they had to face and were forced to deal with made me really sad thinking about it. The imagine that thousands of men went through experiences like that is hard to think about.
1. The soldiers not only carried physical reminders of their loved ones, but they also carried important memories with those people, and being able to think of them made the war a lot easier to cope with. Knowing that you’re fighting for someone that you care about makes it easier to do your job.
3. The soldiers may not be close with one another because they don’t want to be part of the war, but also because the war was very dangerous and it might have been easier not to make friends than have to watch your close friend die. They just may have not wanted to experience that feeling of watching a friend die.
This book really makes the Vietnam War come to life. Reading of the emotions of the soldiers makes it all the more realistic, and it makes you think about what you would do if you were fighting in Vietnam. It brings you into the soldiers’ world, and shows you not only what they’re dealing with on the outside, but their personal struggles as well.
2.I think the reason that the truth is so hard to in this book because it is the nature of war. The story follows different peoples point of views as they experience the war and in many cases humans don’t make the most reliable narraters. Instead of being told in the point of view of some all powerful all knowing god the story is told from the point of view of the lowly foot soldiers. I think that in many ways this is what makes it more honest. A human element for a human story that takes place in inhuman conditions.
3.This could definitely be because they have been drafted into a war they don’t want any part of. Then again this could also be because each soldier is stuck in their own little universe of sadness along with being in a harrowing war. The loneliness and isolation they feel could also be symbolism for the war itself. Look at the situation of Vietnam. It is (at least towards the end) a war that has forgotten the reason for its fighting. Perhaps the soldiers feel this and they in turn don’t have the will, or if they do they are so weighed down by the things they carry with them.
My assessment of the book is that it is good but not because of its writing (though the writing is certainly good). No, I think this book is good because it accurately shows human emotion. Often in books depicting wars, characters emotions are so blown out or muted. But I feel this book shows some of the harsh realities of humanity. Not everyone has the purest intentions, and not everyone is like the heroes you read about in fiction books. Some humans are just simply that: human. Many of the soldiers who died don’t get the glory at the end of the line. Regardless if you think its a good or bad depiction of war or a realistic view of “the way things were”, you have to admit that it nails the emotional aspect of the story. We are compelled to continue reading because perhaps we see ourselves in these soldiers and people. For better or for worse.
1.) Many of these soldiers coped with the war by bringing memories of their homes. For instance, Lt. Jimmy Cross brought several photos of his fantasy girlfriend that flirts with him, but goes no further. His dream girl, Martha, also sends him an obscure gift, a pebble, that Cross treasures with his life, often carrying the nasty little rock in his mouth. Cross fantasizes about her throughout the fields and paths of Vietnam. This ultimately leads to Cross’s weak leadership for a large amount of time and assisted in the death of Ted Lavender. Cross finds guilt in this and decides to dispose of his paraphernalia of his obsession for Martha by burning her pictures and throwing away the pebble she gave him. Another example lies with Kiowa and Henry Dobbins. Dobbins carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck as the fought and humped through Vietnam. Kiowa, raised as a Baptist by his priest father, Kiowa carried around an illustrated copy of the New Testament, using it for prayer and as a pillow at night. When the emotions were too extreme, such as the death of a comrade, some of these men might resort to substance abuse. Lt. Cross smoked dope as he was trying to cope with the death of Ted Lavender. However, one exception to this was with Rat Kiley. When his dear, almost brother-like, friend, Curt Lemon, died, Kiley’s emotions of coping with grief got the better of him. He committed animal abuse, slowly killing a baby water buffalo by shooting the animal in non-vital spots; slowly exsanguinating the animal as it deceased in miserable pain.
3.) Many of the ideas of loneliness and isolation found in this book can be related mainly to the hardships that these soldiers experience and are compelled to commit in a war that they don’t want to be involved in. For the most part, these soldiers were drafted from various parts of the country and before the war, they wouldn’t have had a single connection to one another. They’ve been thrown into a random war and they don’t have a strong connection, other than to survive. Also, many of these soldiers don’t even want to be in this war. For instance, Lt. Cross would rather be attempting to get lucky with his dream girl from college, Martha. Tim goes through a mental breakdown as he is forced to consider the rest of his life as he debates throwing his life on the line for his country, or rejecting his country altogether to flee North. Also, because this war can change at any minute, building a deep relationship with anyone would only likely result in absolute misery. When Rat witnessed his closest friend pass away in the blink of an eye, he too experienced a mental shutdown as he tried to cope with the loss of a brother. Furthermore, the war didn’t really promote a happy-go-lucky friend-making mentality. These soldiers have one duty which is to seek and destroy in order to fulfill their country’s goal. In the story that Mitchell Sanders shared, the men in the anecdote were told to strictly remain silent for the success of the ambush. Due to this, these men were nearly driven insane from the silence and couldn’t bear to be to themselves any longer; the paranoia overtook them. Likewise, the mentality of the war is for strict business, it doesn’t promote a brotherhood among men.
Question #1:
The soldiers in O’Brien’s platoon dealt with their stress from war in many different ways. Lt. Jimmy Cross carried various items that reminded him of Martha, the girl he loved. He kept all of her letters that she wrote to him, read them each night in his foxhole, and dreamed that they were romantic letters. He also would carry a stone that she sent to him in his mouth, and dreamed he was tasting the taste if her lips.
Perhaps the most intriguing, and, in a way, depressing of the ways these men coped with their stress from war was what Norman Bowker did after returning from war in the chapter “Speaking of Courage.” He would spend his summer nights endlessly making rounds around the lake near his hometown in Wisconsin. He felt safe in his father’s Chevy, and I believe he made these countless circle cruises because it reminded him of his hometown. He mentioned driving the same cruise with a girl named Sally Kramer, as well as just spending July nights with his buddies. In his head, Norman would run through conversations with people like his father or Sally about his scarring war experiences. He’d simply, turn on the radio, let his mind go into autopilot, and lazily coast around the lake for hours on summer nights.
Question #4:
Shame plays a huge part in pushing Tim into the war, If it weren’t for the feeling of shame and letting down his loved ones, Tim would’ve fled the draft by running to Canada. As Tim was staying his six days at the fishing lodge in the chapter “On the Rainy River,” he was very tempted to make a run for Canada, but something was holding him back. He felt extremely guilty at trying to dodge the draft. Although Tim was extremely enraged with the war and at all of its supporters, he couldn’t help but feel shameful to his parents, his family, his friends, even the President himself. Tim felt like a coward by trying to escape the war, so guilt caved in on him and he decided to accept his fate with the draft.
Thus far, I find The Things They Carried to be an extremely interesting and moving novel. It really solidifies and shows just what it was like mentally to fight in a devastating war such as Vietnam. Always having to be on constant edge, the soldiers went through deaths of their comrades, constant raids, bombings, shootings, and the relentless monsoons of Southeast Asia. After all that, having to come back to the real world only to be trapped in a feeling of shock is something too many of us aren’t aware of when we look at our veterans.
1. How did the soldiers cope with being in combat?
During the Horrendous Vietnam war, soldiers were not as exposed to the traditional coping mechanisms of our American society, as illustrated in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried.” These men were forced to discover and invent new ways to deal with the pressures of the Vietnam war, using only their resources while in the Deep and thick Vietnamese jungle. It was not possible for any soldier to carry many items, mementos, or burdens with them, but if something was a necessity, a way was found to carry it along for the ride, and coping mechanisms were a necessity to survive the war.
2. How does shame or the idea of letting another person down motivate Tim and other soldiers in the stories?
There are several examples of shame being a partner to the soldiers as they attempt to cope with war. For example, the men carry good luck charms or personal items in an effort to keep their connection to their real life back home. Therefore, superstition most definitely plays a role in how the men feel about being on the battlefield, the front line. In fact, it is a strong influence in the story. The items of loved ones are used as a way to shield the men from harm, instead of admitting they are afraid, which would be shameful, they cling to objects, for strength. “Henry Dobbins, for example, the biggest man in the group, carries the M-60 machine gun, ‘‘which weighed 23 pounds unloaded, but which was almost always loaded.’’ He also ”carried his girlfriend’s pantyhose wrapped around his neck as a comforter. ”At the end of the story, Lieutenant Cross gets rid of all his mementos, deciding to put his daydreaming aside and concentrate on his job. He is ashamed of himself. Like the other men, Cross, had held onto to letters and pictures as a means of calming the unbridled fear that accompanies war and combat.
So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. It has intrigued me how much emotion is behind the stories. I usually don’t really want to read but I pick the book up and force myself to and after a couple pages, I’m always wanting to read on because of the emotion and tension that O’Brien builds up. He doesn’t sugar coat the war, he tells it like it was, which sets it apart from many other text books and writings about Vietnam. I like this a lot more because we rarely get the opportunity to see this from the eyes of soldiers on the battlefield. This helps me realize and appreciate what the soldiers did in the war, because we get to see what each of the soldiers was thinking about and how the war affected each individual.
The soldiers don’t feel any connection to their comrades for both reasons, because they were drafted into a war they don’t want to fight and war is the most loneliest experience. These men were ripped away from the life they have always known back home. They don’t have any contact with anyone in America except for by letter. The people that loved and cared about them were on the other side of the planet, and now the soldiers were in a strange land surrounded by strangers, all feeling the same way. War was a very lonely experience because they knew at any moment, anyone of the soldiers fighting with them could be killed. They couldn’t have bonds with everyone because there was a chance that the person would be killed. They had seen others killed and the emotional torment that hit them afterwards was beyond belief. Since they didn’t want this to happen again, they didn’t make any bonds with others at all.
Shame or the idea of letting another person down motivates Tim and the other soldiers in the stories because they know that if they fail in battle or let their comrades down, then it could cost all of them their lives. They know that they are fighting for their friends and family back at home and their way of life. There is no room for error from these men because at any moment they could be ambushed and killed. They’ve seen others die before their eyes and they can’t let it happen to the others. If they do, they will be remembered as a coward. The shame and the stain on their conscience that they caused someone else’s death wouldn’t be manageable. They had to fight for their country and possible die or kill, but for the lives of the people they care about and want to protect, it was worth it for them to keep going.
The Things They Carried is at times deliberately drab, recounting nearly-identical days spent in Vietnam, at times bittersweet as the author recounts memories of his comrades in war, though at the same time the undeniable distance and lack of connection between them, but above all it is an honest perspective of the American soldier in Vietnam. What I admire most about this novel is its tone. Even the chapters themselves are unnumbered, leaving this seeming much more like a collection of memories that, instead of telling a story, are by themselves significant to the author, but I feel that the genuineness of the book makes it all the more captivating to read. In the chapter “On the Rainy River”, O’Brien speaks of the change that the draft brought to his life. He did not immediately decide he would proudly fight for his country, nor did he burn his draft card and join protests exploding across the country or flee to Canada. He lies low at a northern Minnesota ski resort, and the six days that follow allow him to dwell for a bit with the torment and necessity of deciding. Uncertainty is a major theme in the book, and it makes perfect sense. Much of the American population was uncertain about or denying altogether the war’s benefits, if there were any. President Johnson’s promises of a victory at the end of the tunnel did little to calm the rage and unrest of protesters. O’Brien describes the summer of the draft by saying “the only certainty…was moral confusion.” This uncertainty came from the government being particularly secretive about its reasons, and even politicians themselves were immensely divided. The truth is seldom clear among the American population during Vietnam, and morality itself becomes gray with so many varying and clashing perspectives. Even once the soldiers go to war, they cooperate, even banter from time to time, sure, but rarely were personal connections and relations made. There was far too much to lose, and it makes sense that a soldier would hesitate to place his trust and personally connect with someone who could literally die at a moment’s notice. Yet, while carrying their own ammunition, rations, and melancholy, they in turn are carried by the pressure of an entire country, the fear of the shame they’d experience if they went home after losing, and the lack of alternatives, the draft forcing them into their current circumstances. The Things They Carried is a bluntly honest collection of memories, yet one that, personally, causes indescribably powerful emotions of multiple kinds to well up.
In the book The Things They Carried the soldiers had to find many different ways to cope in the war. Each soldier had a different way of coping. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha. He was in love with this girl and he sometimes fantasized about what it would be like if she loved him in more of a way than just a friend. Others such as Ted Lavender took drugs, like tranquilizer so to keep himself calm and his mind off of what was happening. A lot of the soldiers kept their heads in the gutters and thought about sex a lot which I figured was a way to cope. Anyways, it seemed as though most of the soldiers brought something that remind them of life before the war. Not to forget men in the war had to somewhat have a morbid sense of humor to maintain their sanity with everything that was happening in the war.
I believe that the shame of letting another person down in the book motivates the soldiers a lot. I say this because the soldiers in the story seem to be very prideful and they don’t want to be seen as cowards. I remember reading in the story one of the characters said something to the extent of they could just fall down and I believe he meant fake an injury just to go home, but there goes the whole idea of being a coward pops up again. As much as some of the soldiers may feel that the war is wrong they can’t do anything about it, especially because they do t want to let down their country or even people closer to them like family. Being a coward could somehow cause a man to feel less like a man in some way.
Overall I actually enjoy the book. My enjoyment of the book was a surprise to me, because I don’t normally read books of historical fiction, but the two books we are reading in APUSH now are actually interesting. It helps understand the Vietnam War a lot better also. It’s a great synthesis point.
I really like this book so far. It is very interesting to learn of what the soldiers had gone through. The Vietnam War was a very scary time and very gruesome. I like how the book is broken up into separate stories, it shows many different perspectives. I like the viewpoint of veterans who had first hand encounters with these situations, it really makes me feel as if I am there.
1. The soldiers coped with being in combat by carrying physical objects that helped them think positive thoughts, they also carried mental thoughts, which would either boost their spirit or drag them down. After Ted died, the soldiers in Ted’s troop had to carry the fact that it was on them that Ted died. Lt. Jimmy Cross really felt this burden. He was the leader and blamed himself. Lt. Cross was also in love with a women, this women however did not love him back. He felt this distraction of “love” prevented him from saving Ted.
3. I feel that even though the soldiers are surrounded by each other, they still struggle to make a connection with each other because they cannot trust each other. They have not known one another for very long. I think this is because they were drafted into the Vietnam War. Being drafted took away their freedom made them fight for their country. Most of the soldiers do not want to be there, so most people want to stay to themselves. It would be a different case if they volunteered for the war because they would all have that in common. Lots of horrific things were going on which scarred some people, which also helped the fact of the men sticking to themselves. I feel the war had torn the groups of men apart and did no good for building relations unless they had individuals in the groups that strived for friendship and trust among the men.