…once again, I go above and beyond in length for a forum posting. The following was submitted in response to a classwork assignment:
In writing the short story, “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien explores the realities of the Vietnam War in fictional form rather than as a presentation of precise facts, and focuses on the disjunction between the realities of the Vietnam War and the imagination as represented by the items carried by the soldiers he writes about. In your main discussion board post, briefly sum up your initial reaction to the story, and then address these two sets of questions:
- How, in the end, do you think O’Brien wants his readers to view the role of imagination and fantasy in these characters’ lives? Is imagination and fantasy positive and helpful, negative and dangerous, or something else?
- How is this issue of fantasy vs. reality also being explored through O’Brien’s choice to examine the Vietnam War in fictional form rather than through the presentation of precise facts? Do you see any connection between the depiction of imagination/fantasy in the story and O’Brien’s use of a fictional medium?
Please divide your response into paragraphs for easier reading, and make sure to point to/paraphrase/quote specific passages in the story to support your reading (do cite those passages, too). Your initial response should be 250-300 words and is due by 11:59 pm Wednesday of Week 2. Responses to classmates should be between 150-200 words and are due 11:59 pm Sunday of Week 2
Personally, I believe that OâBrien simply wants to show that the soldiers are as vulnerable to fantasy, dreams and emotion as any other person. Soldiers of war are still very humanâtheir minds shall never stop being creative in dealing with the troubles they face. Through painting this image, OâBrien leads us to ask whether thisâbeing human in such an inhumane settingâis positive or negative.
Throughout this short weâre given multiple examples of the differences of what the men are thinking and how the war and prior lives have helped shape them. Though the military has prescribed a specific list of things the men must carry, each man carries something different with themâthough in many ways, they still carry the same things. Comic books, photographs, letters, various âcharmsââeach man carrying something special to them which keeps them connected to their own world at home; each man carrying something which attempts to keep them connected to sanity.
In the end, our main character, Lt. Cross, sees that his own attempts at keeping sane have drawn his mind away from his duties to his men. I question whether this judgment is fair. Cross may have been miles away in his mind, but was he truly responsible for Lavenderâs death? Day-dreaming of a woman that may not truly have âfeelingsâ, imagining, questioning whether this girl was pure of mind, body and spiritâwere these things really responsible for Lavenderâs demise?
Boom-down. Zapped while zipping.
Cross, just as any other man would, found fault in himself, fault in his emotions, fault in being human, and decided to blame that fault for Lavenderâs death. A good Lieutenant may not have been preoccupied with thoughts and visions of college girls playing volleyball, sure; but a good Lieutenant may have had his nose buried so deep in maps and radio communiquĂ©s that any number of men could have had their heads blown off.
Is imagination, fantasy, day-dreaming, escaping reality for a single momentâis it dangerous? It can be. Cross saw it as an avoidable danger in the end.
Are these separations from reality positive and helpful? Undoubtedly. One could question whether the men would be sane or even human if they did not take these breaks from the horror that they were living. It is my belief that the main point being driven here is that these feelings and emotions are impossible to escape; that to fantasize is simply a part of being human, and that it can and does happen at any time and in any setting. Whether these fantasies can be controllingâhow influential they may beâis entirely up to the individual.
OâBrien delivers this message well amidst this tale of a seemingly small platoon in the Vietnam War. The main concept of the collection of stories is to deliver the experience of the war; what better way to do so, than to write it in such a way as to allow for the reader to connect on a more humanâa more emotionalâlevel? In order to accomplish this goal, OâBrien made use of the historical fiction genre, and drew upon the use of fantasy as the connecting element between the characters and the reader. Fantasy also serves as an interesting element in affecting the flow of the story, jerking the reader into and out of the fantasies as well.
Delivering a factual tale of a war can be less than entertaining; telling the reader of the various equipment used creates a sense that the writer simply copied the dry and sterile text of a military publicationâan equipment list, a duty roster, or a technical manual on the assembly of some exotic weapon. These facts, as necessary as they may be, do not engage a reader; breaking away and dipping into the souls of the characters involved, however, is very engaging. This is why, I suspect, that OâBrien chose the tactic of drawing us into the character; introducing the âcurrentâ fantasy and then breaking away back to the more âmundaneâ details of the things they carried, cycling back to the other âthingsâ they carriedârepeating the cycle.
This method worked quite well to establish an engaging tale and give the reader a truer feeling of how fantasy can creep upon us, draw us in and then boomâback to reality.
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…just as a side note…
…a really nice reading of the short is available at: http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/10573078
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