Rat Kiley and Linda

Rat Kiley just lost it like Mary Anne. Not exactly like she did, but pretty close. On page 212, Rat Kiley "took off his boots and socks, laid out his medical kit, doped himself up, and put a round through his foot." The war made everyone crazy, but it seems to have hit O'Brien's friends particularly hard. On another note, it's sad that Linda died so young, but I didn't understand at first why she was connected to Vietnam. It's the same as Ted Lavender. All the men talked about him and told stories after he died. They knew it wouldn't bring him back, but he lived on in a way through the stories. O'Brien wrote this book to pass on stories about Vietnam to younger generations and civilians of his own generation. The stories don't bring his comrades back to life, but they're all honored in the stories. Their experiences live on longer than their lifetimes and O'Brien's through the novel, and that the reason for the book.

The Ghost Soldiers

O'Brien got shot. It's Vietnam. Big whoop. I don't get why he gets so mad at Jorgenson the second time, though. It's not Jorgenson's fault that he flipped out. And the revenge thing is incredibly annoying. O'Brien says he "devoted a lot of time to figuring ways to get back at him" (181) which is pointless since it didn't help him heal at all. There is so much pointless blame/anger in this book. It's really getting on my nerves. I must admit, though, that this book is a million time better than The Sun Also Rises.

I Almost Forgot!

So I totally meant to talk about Mary Anne and her insanity. She's a good example of what the war can do to someone. She arrived in Vietnam as a naive seventeen-year-old whose boyfriend was a soldier. After a while, she started to learn about the war, and she liked it. She got sucked into it to the point that her boyfriend found her with the "Greenies" after a night raid, and "At the girl's neck was a necklace of human tongues" (105). This story was meant to show that the war can take an unlikely person and turn them into a battle-hungry warrior. Mary Anne and Mark never expected her to turn into that person when he arranged for her to live in Vietnam. Crazy things happen in unpredictable situations.

Field Trip

This chapter is proof that no one who has not experienced the war in Vietnam can understand it. Kathleen asks on page 175 "But why?". It's a good question that even soldiers had to answer. They had better answers than civilians, though. The soldiers fought because they had to, and that's what O'Brien tells his daughter. They didn't know why they had to. They just had to. Civilians, however, don't even understand that they had to. Civilians ask for reasons just like Kathleen did, and that's why O'Brien wrote the book.

Good Form

Well, now I'm confused. Did he kill someone, or didn't he? With the details he used earlier in "The Man I Killed," one would think that he truly did kill a man. On page 171, he says "I watched a man die on a trail near the village of My Khe. I did not kill him." Why would he make up a story like that? I get that he needs to convey a mood. That makes perfect sense. How does he just make up such a realistic story with so many details, though? I'll admit that it did create the proper mood and feeling, but it makes me mad that he lied. There are better ways to convey a mood than to make up a story in a book about men who actually did have stories to tell.

The Blame Game

On page 169, the last paragraph discusses blame. That paragraph really struck me because blame seems so sinmple, but It has some serious effects. Jimmy Cross' thoughts tell us that "When a man died, there had to be blame." That explains Norman Bowker's suicide. each person places the blame in a different place according to his or her own feelings. Norman blamed himself. Although he didn't deserve it, he blamed himself. Jimmy Cross contemplates the "blame game" because it's something that was on the mind of every soldier. Whose fault was it that they were fighting a war? Nobody knew, but this is another insight into the mind of a soldier.

Repetition

I can't tell if it's because these things are extra important or not. This is the second time O'Brien has repeated exact wording, and I don't know why he does it. The first time was with the guy that he killed. He repeated the details and description of the kid at least twice using the exact same words. This time, he repeats the description of an incident right before Kiowa's death. On page 163, Kiowa looks at a picture and says "Hey, she's cute." After that, the field "exploded all around them." On page 169, O'Brien repeats this phrase of Kiowa's and follows it up with a description of the field and the light. Why?!

This War Stuff Is Freakin' Me Out, Man

Okay so I get that war is traumatizing and all, but he seriously killed himself? On page 149, O'Brien says "Norman Bowker...hanged himself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown in central Iowa." That's a little extreme. I mean, he lost a comrade, and he should be upset. But Kiowa's death was not by any means his fault. Kiowa was shot, and he died because he was shot. The fact that he slipped into the muck had nothing to do with his death. Norman couldn't have saved him, so why did he feel so guilty? It's frustrating that he blamed himself when he didn't need to.

What the Men Are Carrying

So all the anecdotes in the novel are starting to make sense. The characters in the novel all have stories, right? And they're sharing their stories with O'Brien, so he's sharing all their emotional baggage stuff. I think I said in one of my first blogs that the weight of the soldiers' equipment represents the emotional burdens that the soldiers carry. By telling O'Brien their stories and feelings and reactions, they ask him to share their burdens. They also make it his resposibility to pass their stories on to the world. As an author, he has a larger audience than they do. This gives him the ability to make the world aware of their trials and battles and personal issues in Vietnam and after they returned like with O'Brien's own issues such as when his daughter asked him why he writes war stories and he answered "Of course not" on page 125.

Characterization

O'Brien's strategy for characterization in the novel is telling stories from different characters' points of view. In Norman Bowker's case, the story about how he "almost won the Silver Star" (135) shows his feelings about the war and what kind of man he is. He cares about honor, although that probably applies to most of the men in the war. The fact that the story concerns his father shows that he looks up to his father. His relationship with his father is important to him, and he cares what his father thinks. O'Brien does this with almost every soldier in the novel which gives them all a personality. By giving the men personalities, O'Brien makes their stories more believable. He also creates a bigger, better picture of life in Vietnam.

Diction

O'Brien's diction gives the reader the sensory details and descriptions which are necessary to the story. On page 136, he describes the "deep, thick muck" which surrounded the soldiers, and the reader gets an idea of the muck. He continues, however, to use a simile to describe the muck saying that it was "Like quicksand, almost, except the stink was incredible." Because of the words he's chosen and the comparison he's made, the reader can picture the "shit field." The ability to create an image also inspires emotion, so the reader has a sense of what the soldiers in the field were feeling throughout their experience there. To add to this sense, O'Brien describes Norman Bowker's reactions to the occurrences. Because the reader hasn't experienced the stories told in the novel, the reactions of the characters are key in conveying the mood and feeling of the story. O'Brien's use of details creates the perfect picture of Vietnam in the reader's mind and makes the story a heck of a lot more interesting.

Conflict

Obviously there's some external conflict going on: the war. But the main conflicts of the novel seem to be internal. Jimmy Cross was separated from Martha, a woman he loves who does not love him back, but he still "carried letters from [her]" (1). Tim O'Brien almost swam away to Canada because he didn't want to leave his "mainstream life" (48) for a war in which he didn't believe. The book is mainly centered on how people deal with conflicts inside their own minds, especially when they're in high-pressure situations. The biggest conflict so far in the story is O'Brien's decision to go to war. He says that he "had taken a modest stand against the war" (39) and had even rung "a few doorbells for Gene McCarthy" (39). These aren't the actions of a guy who wants to go to war. His decision was like his own personal war between his mind and his heart.

Story Time, Kids.

Throughout the novel, O'Brien scatters several anecdotes which introduce the reader to new characters and also illustrate life in Vietnam of the soldiers. Chapter five is an anecdote which demonstrates the emotional fragility of a soldier in times of stress. When Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk try to beat the crap out of each other, it doesn't seem like an extraordinary occurrence. They're young guys. They like to show off and see who's stronger, and a battle over a stolen jackknife doesn't seem too crazy. The emotional stress had and impact on Jensen, though. He basically lost his mind and became paranoid about everything until he "borrowed a pistol, gripped it by the barrel, and used it like a hammer to break his own nose" (60). Lee finds humor in this, but it shows the different effects that a war can have on different people. Everyone reacts in his or her own way.

Elroy Berdahl

While O'Brien already had the guilt trip covered, Elroy sure did help out. He didn't even have to say anything or ask any questions; he just knew. Elroy is a flat character. He is not complex and does not change himself, but he acts as a catalyst and brings about a change in O'Brien, thus making O'Brien a dynamic character. O'Brien describes Berdahl as having a "willful, almost ferocious silence" on page 47. Although Elroy never questioned him about his stay at the Tip Top Lodge or his strange behavior, he found a way to make young Tim O'Brien realize that he had to go back home. He never said a word, but his silence was enough to convince Tim that he would be making a mistake which he would regret forever if he jumped out of that boat and swam for Canada. The old man changed O'Brien's life with just six days of silence and an aura of wisdom.

To Desert Or Not To Desert; That Is The Question

Personally, I think he's crazy for not swimming to Canada, but that's just me. That opinion could be partially rooted in the fact that, had he swum to Canada, I wouldn't be reading his book right now. The guilt got him. It's as simple as that. He was so close that he could have just backstroked to freedom, and he chose to stay in the stupid boat. I understand that he was and still is "feeling the shame" (37), but I can't imagine shame strong enough to make me go to war especially if I didn't believe in the cause. American culture was different then, and there was a bigger focus on honor, so I also understand that he felt more pressure than a draftee would today. It still stands to reason, though, that a quality soldier has to believe in the cause. He has to have strong feelings about the prize for which he's fighting. Why would someone who had participated in even minor anti-war demonstrations be drafted?

Past and Present

I really like how O'Brien describes the war but also his life after the war. On page 36, he says "...the war occurred half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering makes it now." At the beginning, it seemed like the book was going to focus on the war and the experiences one would have in a war and the emotional trials of being away from home. Chapter three and part of chapter two, however, give it a new spin. O'Brien shows the reader how memories of the war can affect a person for years to come. There are certain things which are too painful to talk about or things that people wish they could forget, and when Jimmy Cross and O'Brien visit with each other after the war, this becomes apparent. They have a mutual understanding of this which the reader sees on page 29 when Cross says "And do me a favor. Don't mention anything about--" and O'Brien responds with "No...I won't." Based on O'Brien's descriptions, memories of the war never go away, and neither do the details.

I Guess I Was Wrong...

Okay, so on that point of view thing, I think I was wrong. In chapter 2, O'Brien says "Many years after the war, Jimmy Cross came to visit me at my home in Massachusetts..." This implies that the narrator was, in fact, in on the action of the war. So the narrator is using first person now. I can see how this might get confusing throughout the book, so I think I might be liking it a bit less. With a mix of third and first person narrations, it's hard to tell if he's omniscient or not. Is he making up the other men's emotions and thoughts, or did he ask them about their feelings? And is Jimmy Cross still the main character, or is this a story about Tim O'Brien?

Colloquialism

On page 19, the jargon of a soldier really comes into play, and O'Brien makes obvious the meaning of it all. He says "They used a hard vocabulary to contain the terrible softness. Greased they'd say. Offed, lit up, zapped while zipping." While these terms may not make sense in everyday life, to a soldier, they make perfect sense. When Ted Lavender was killed, he was "zapped while zipping." When the men carried all of their gear and ammunition, the "humped" it. Makes perfect sense to any man who was there or witnessed something of the sort. This language draws the reader into the soldiers' lives. By using the jargon which they used, he makes the reader feel a connection to the soldiers which is strengthened by all the other details of the war.

Point of View

The Things They Carried is told from a third person point of view. The narrator describes the love life of Jimmy Cross and on page 15 says that "Jimmy Cross led his men into the village of Than Khe." While the narrator is able to describe all these things, he never uses the pronoun "I" or indicates that he has taken part in any of the action. He also seems to be an omniscient third party. On the first page of the novel, he talks about Jimmy "imagine[ing] romantic camping trips" with Martha. A limited narrator could not know Jimmy's thoughts, so he must be omniscient. After finishing the first chapter, I really do like this book a lot better than TSAR. It's much easier to follow, and it's more entertaining.

Second First Blog Post. We're Carrying Things Now.

Firstly, I like this book way better than the first one. TSAR was awful, and The Things They Carried actually has a point. At the beginning, O'Brien lists the thing which were literally carried by soldiers in Vietnam such as "a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a .45-caliber pistol that weighed 2.9 pounds fully loaded" (page 5). O'Brien continues to list these literal burdens and then moves to emotional ones. At the end of the chapter, it seemed to me that the weights of the literal items connected somehow to the "weights" of the emotional ones. They seem to be a kind of indirect metaphor. "20 pounds of ammunition" (6) is equal to the emotional weight of a dead comrade or a girlfriend back home. It isn't said directly, but the heaviest equipment seems to correlate with the biggest emotional issues.