Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” is set in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and describes a soldier’s burden by listing what they carried and portraying scenes in a war. Critics have debated over the classification of O’Brien’s story. The major dispute is over whether “The Things They Carried” is appropriately classified as war literature. Although Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” is fictitious, it is war literature since it conveys the physical and emotional burdens borne by soldiers through war and depicts the emotions and reality of the experience effectively.
Some critics laim that “The Things They Carried” should not be classified as war literature because of its fictitious nature. Bruce Bawer is one of such critics; he feels that O’Brien “plays too many fact-or- fiction games” for his work to be taken seriously. He also asserts that O’Brien’s work cannot honestly capture the reality of war since O’Brien uses fiction. Bawer claims that by using fiction, O’Brien causes his message to be “so much less interesting – and less profound – than the superbly straightforward narratives of men at war” (A13).
These critics view that veering away from facts weakens whatever message about war that war tories attempt to convey. Other experts believe that O’Brien’s use of fiction does not hinder or change the purpose of his writing. Instead, these critics feel that O’Brien’s execution of “The Things They Carried” makes it an exceptional piece of war literature. These experts have different criteria for the classification of war literature. For example, Tina Chen and Marilyn Wesley assert that war literature needs to be truthful.
Wesley states that truth lies “[i]n the space between.. he way events of the war feel to the soldiers in the field, and fictive order, the way popular representations suggest they should espond” (6). While Chen claims that truth “lies not in realistic depictions or definitive accounts” (77). Wesley points to a mixture of fact and fiction in properly describing war, and Chen stresses that the strict use of facts cannot express the reality of what is experienced by individuals in war settings. John Timmerman places the emotions felt by individuals in war as the superlative criteria for classifying war literature.
He claims that “[w]ar stories must evoke the dreams and lives of individual soldiers, as opposed to giving a statistical or historical accounting of data” (Timmerman 101). Timmerman emphasizes he need for war stories to express the emotion linked with soldiers’ experiences in war. He expounds on the opinion that stringently sticking to facts is ineffectual in portraying war by stating “[e]very time human experience is rendered as fact, however, the human place in war becomes more abstracted and more simplistic” (100). These critics feel that strictly sticking to facts leaves a war story severely lacking.
The main problem with using only facts in a war story, is that humans do not typically think in terms of fact but instead perceive everything through the lenses of personal bias and past experience. Therefore, when writing about human experience, especially what is faced in war, a writer would do well to portray to how the event was seen, not what is accepted as fact. Timmerman aptly states “[e]very event is recalled by the intellect and as the emotions experienced during the event” (113). Therefore for an event to be accurately told, emotions must be included.
If one was to stick to facts and statistics, the truth found in human experience would be lost, since “what happened in the hearts and minds of the soldiers who fought that battle is not conveyed by clinical data. To uncover that is the work of iction” (Timmerman 101). Without the human experience, the depiction of the reality of war would be severely hindered and the objective of portraying war would be inhibited. The truth of human experience can be easily and efficiently captured in fiction, and O’Brien uses this to paint the Vietnam War.
The Things They Carried” is a war story since it expresses the reality of what happens in war and reveals the mindset of soldiers. “The Things They Carried” shows how war forces men to bear enormous burdens, and criticizes the motifs commonly associated with war by describing how soldiers really think. O’Brien uses lists throughout “The Things They Carried” in order to express the weight of war. He begins with the physical items, listing things that are necessary in war – weapons, rations, protective gear, etc. – and “near-necessities” that soldiers carry because of their past and personality – Kiowa’s bible, Lieutenant Cross’s pebble.
With most of the items listed he mentions its weight. They carried “steel helmets that weighed 5 pounds” (322), “jungle boots – 2. 1 pounds”, “nylon-covered flak jacket, which weighed 6. 7 pounds” (323) and more. As the story progresses and more items are mentioned, the feels the weight illing up and gets a feel of the tremendous weight on the soldiers’ shoulders. O’Brien’s helps his audience understand the experience and allows the reader to begin to understand what soldiers endure, even though O’Brien’s story is fictitious.
O’Brien moves from listing physical items to incorporeal matters carried by soldiers. He tells the audience that soldiers carried “their own lives” (330), “the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love longing”, they shared the weight of memory. They took up what others could no longer bear” (329), “their reputations”, “the common secret of cowardice barely estrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide” (333). The reader is left truly understanding the amount that soldiers carry, physically and emotionally.
The audience becomes more aware of the weight soldiers have to cope with and the reader begins to get a sense of the burden war places on the individuals force to participate in it. By conveying the experience through his writing, O’Brien creates a war story. Through his truthful portrayals of war, O’Brien shows that the motifs associated with war are inaccurate and have little place in war. O’Brien addresses the idea that war instills courage and valor and the dea that war is for a greater purpose. He discredits the idea of a courageous and honorable warrior by describing the mindset of the average soldier.
He states “[t]hey 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. ” O’Brien reveals that men usually do not fight in wars for honor or because of courage but more because of a fear to lose face. He claims “[i]t was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather, they were too frightened to be cowards” (333).
Without the use of fiction in describing the minds of the soldiers, O’Brien would not have accurately portrayed the war experience, since strict adherence to fact would fail to capture subjective things like human emotion. Experts have had difficulty classifying “The Things They Carried” because of its fictitious nature. While some believe that this short story should not be considered as war literature because it is not factual, others feel that a war story must be somewhat fictitious in order to capture the feelings of he participants of war and thus paint a correct image of war.
By expressing the full truth of war in “The Things They Carried”, O’Brien writes a war story. The fictitious nature of his war story allows O’Brien to describe what goes through the minds of soldiers and accurately depict war. While a war story need not be entirely fictitious, strictly sticking to facts when depicting war neglects the important role of human emotion and perception of events in the war experience. “The Things They Carried” brings the Vietnam War to life and helps its audience understand the genuine consequences of war, not just how war is projected.
