"The Things They Carried" was an interesting story to read, for a few different reasons. I think the main reason, though, was how it took on some nonfiction characteristics. The author was IN the Vietnam War, so while the stories might have been fiction and the characters weren't real, it was in all likelihood very accurate.
The facts were there. All of the real, SOP, physical things they carried were real. The weight of each item, burdening us as readers.
I imagine that Tim O'Brien knew men like the ones he wrote about, knew a superstitious man who carried a rabbit's foot, or a man in love with a girl back home who carried her letters with him. The facts and the details made this story very realistic, which for me, made it more interesting.
O'Brien is also a great writing, painting pictures with his words. The image of Lavender being shot, the image of the Vietnamese boy with flies in his eyes and mouth, the image of Cross' love on the beach, these were very well written moments.
My favorite quotes from the text, however, are:
"They all carried ghosts." (430)
"They shared the weight of memory." (432)
"They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, loving, longing..." (435)
I think they are all beautifully written and sound almost poetic.
Yeah I felt the same way. The story while fictional felt very real because of the author's descriptions.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by how you say these features of the writing burden us as readers. Is that just a function of vicarious experience and so we identify with soldiers carrying physical objects? Maybe. But each time we analyze something it's as though we carry that with us, unable to be disburden ourselves until we interpret or express our meaning. What are you starting to carry as you analyze? Where are you taking those things?
ReplyDeleteSo when I read the book in high school my teacher had all of us thinking it was non-fiction and then we got to the end where he tells the reader the stories aren't true... Talk about upset haha. I really like this post and the ideas that you put in it - how the reader is burdened by the weight of it all. Good stuff.
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