The Things They Carried final post
The narrator of The Things They Carried is Tim O'Brien who was a war veteran that began serving when he was just eighteen years old in Vietnam. Some experiences throughout his life completely effected his personality and behaviors. First, when he was a young boy, his best friend, Linda, passed away from cancer, and he began using a coping method to cope with his loss. He would kindle the memory of Linda in his dreams and using this he could keep her with him at all times. O'Brien states, "I'm forty-three years old, and a writer now, and even still, right here, I keep dreaming Linda alive"(213). This interesting form of grieving very much effected the next portion of life that changed him forever.
When O'Brien was drafted for war, he was not exactly keen on the idea of leaving. He was truly scared and nervous, which is expected. He even went as far to consider fleeing the country to Canada to avoid having to go. This is when the idea of Linda is extremely prevalent. I believe that having to cope withWthe loss of her made a huge impact on his life and pained him forever, and so, he did not want to go to war and be around death all the time. He eventually went to Vietnam despite his fears, and those experiences changed the man O'Brien was forever, just like Linda's death did. He continued the same coping method during the war when he keeps his friends like Kiowa alive by writing about them and dreaming about them. My opinion on Tim O'Brien did change a lot throughout the book. When it initially started, I was anxious to learn about his story and motives. Then, when he almost fled the war, I believed he was a tiny bit cowardly. After that incident, my opinion about Tim O'Brien remained constant: this man is truly heroic. While I know O'Brien claims that after a war story you should not have a sense of optimism, I came out of this feeling truly blessed and inspired. This man had a tough beginning of life, and despite that, he still went over to a war to defend our country. Now, he tells the story of his friends and keeps their memories alive, so that they never die. This is so incredibly inspiring. Tim O'Brien is brave, strong, and someone who changes the world with the stories that he tells.
The author of this story is also the narrator. O'Brien chose himself to be the narrator because these are his stories to tell, and he knows that only he can tell them and keep their full integrity. This method is extremely effective. If it would have been some made up author who wasn't actually in the war, the overall intensity and realness would not have been as obvious throughout the novel. The way he tells the story is cryptically sensitive. He uses a perfect blend of harshness, but we can still see a softer side coming through in his writing. The fact that he was there and experiencing it all changes everything. Writing about a time in your life that was not happy or your best time is extremely difficult, but I am glad O'Brien bared the responsibility and had the strength to write about this time to keep his memories alive.
When O'Brien talks about the things soldiers carried in the first part of the book, he states, "They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die" (20). This quote really helped me developed my opinion on Tim O'Brien. This man knew that he could most definitely die while in the war and went into it with emotional baggage that he already had to carry on his back. He still went into the war knowing that he could come out carrying so much more, and he did. Yes, O'Brien was scared to go to the war and even considered fleeing, but he did not leave. This just makes me have so much respect for him. He carries so much emotional baggage, and we can see the way this effects him in his writing. I have a very high opinion on this man. He took his struggles and hardships and turned it into a phenomenal piece of literature that has forever changed my heart and the way that I view war. He sought out to make this a "real war story," and he succeeded. Everyone struggles, but it takes a certain type of person to take that pain and create a story.
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