Is the Narrator a character?
When I read The Things They Carried for the first time I was reminded of my Uncle Jerry who fought in Vietnam, and was then a truck driver when he came home. He never talked about being over seas. I don't know anything about his life during the war. That's my experience with everyone I've known that served in Vietnam. From what I've heard, and from the description in TTTC, it was an unnerving war that left deep scars on those who fought in it.
Then on top of that, the soldiers who fought for us in that war were treated so poorly upon returning to America. So many of them were ridiculed, and there was no support for the suffering, I imagine many of the veterans felt like they weren't allowed to suffer. They weren't heros like the men who fought in WW2, so get over it.
That makes me curious as to how autobiographical TTTC is. O'Brien did serve in Vietnam, so at least his understanding of the setting is personal.
I don't think that the exact events belong to O'Brien, but since this is his voice dealing with the war, how much of O'Brien's personality is in the narrator?
Separately, I wonder if the narrator-- be it O'Brien or completely fictional-- is a soldier in the battalion in the short story. If I had to make my speculation he is, even though the story is told in a 3rd person omniscient voice, I think that the narrator is speaking for his comrades since he cannot speak for himself.
When the Narrator uses terms like "SOP" and "grunts, or humps" I hear the words flow out off his tongue like they have a million times before. The Narrator owns this language.
The starting and stopping rhythm of the narrative reminds me of a man who wakes up at night from a repeating dream and has to go over the event of Ted Lavander's death one more time, just to get it out of his head. Only "one more time" happens nightly. The narrator climbs inside his comrades' roles to try from every perspective to save Ted, but he dies everytime regardless.
If anyone liked the story enough to read more of the selections in the book you might end up wondering-- like many have-- if this is a novel or a collection of short stories? I don't know what my answer would be. But there is a graphic intimacy to the stories that makes them better together than on their own. This obsessive-revisiting quality is repeated over and over again.
"Tim the Enchanter" said in his comments that he wouldn't want Jimmy Cross as his Lieutenant. I don't think the Narrator did either, and now, so many years later is stuck somewhere between hating Cross and identifying with him. He's somewhere between blaming him and forgiving him.
Those are my thoughts. Feel free to rip them up, or agree with them in the comments. Or if you think, "Well that was a pointless post, I think we should be discussing the setting." Go ahead, start a new thread, the discussion is now open.
Let the interpretation begin!!!
Then on top of that, the soldiers who fought for us in that war were treated so poorly upon returning to America. So many of them were ridiculed, and there was no support for the suffering, I imagine many of the veterans felt like they weren't allowed to suffer. They weren't heros like the men who fought in WW2, so get over it.
That makes me curious as to how autobiographical TTTC is. O'Brien did serve in Vietnam, so at least his understanding of the setting is personal.
I don't think that the exact events belong to O'Brien, but since this is his voice dealing with the war, how much of O'Brien's personality is in the narrator?
Separately, I wonder if the narrator-- be it O'Brien or completely fictional-- is a soldier in the battalion in the short story. If I had to make my speculation he is, even though the story is told in a 3rd person omniscient voice, I think that the narrator is speaking for his comrades since he cannot speak for himself.
When the Narrator uses terms like "SOP" and "grunts, or humps" I hear the words flow out off his tongue like they have a million times before. The Narrator owns this language.
The starting and stopping rhythm of the narrative reminds me of a man who wakes up at night from a repeating dream and has to go over the event of Ted Lavander's death one more time, just to get it out of his head. Only "one more time" happens nightly. The narrator climbs inside his comrades' roles to try from every perspective to save Ted, but he dies everytime regardless.
If anyone liked the story enough to read more of the selections in the book you might end up wondering-- like many have-- if this is a novel or a collection of short stories? I don't know what my answer would be. But there is a graphic intimacy to the stories that makes them better together than on their own. This obsessive-revisiting quality is repeated over and over again.
"Tim the Enchanter" said in his comments that he wouldn't want Jimmy Cross as his Lieutenant. I don't think the Narrator did either, and now, so many years later is stuck somewhere between hating Cross and identifying with him. He's somewhere between blaming him and forgiving him.
Those are my thoughts. Feel free to rip them up, or agree with them in the comments. Or if you think, "Well that was a pointless post, I think we should be discussing the setting." Go ahead, start a new thread, the discussion is now open.
Let the interpretation begin!!!
posted by Devona @ 6:17 PM
6 Comments:
At 3:43 AM,
Queen of Carrots said…
I suspect the trauma of Vietnam on those who fought it has been somewhat overblown when compared with that of veterans of other wars. Hero or not, my grandfather never talked about WWII, either, and if you read the recollections of soldiers from any war, whether they believed in what they were doing or not, whether they were greeted as heroes or villains, sane people agree that war is hell.
I ran across a quote from Chesterton today that reminded me of this story. "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." Certainly love has no connection with the fighting for these soldiers--it's a distraction from a separate world. But at least as the narrator sees it, these soldiers don't even have the passion of hate to keep them going. Just habit and a low sort of pride. No wonder the packs--and he sounds as if he is carrying all of them--seem so heavy.
I do think the narrator comes through as a definite character, indeed, more strongly than any of the other characters. It is his perspective on what is happening that you remember. You don't feel like you are there--you feel like you are listening to someone relive it.
At 6:25 AM,
Mutti said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
At 7:08 AM,
Mutti said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
At 9:31 AM,
Devona said…
QOC: Good point about the notion of "heros vs. Villians." I guess that because I do not come from a military family I don't know any vets from WWII. I'm glad to have been given a new perspective.
I love the Chesterton quote as well.
Mutti: I am prone to think that O'Brien is the narrator as well. But the only reason I can't say, "They're the same" is because I read an interview with O'Brien where he said that the narrator was fictional, he just used his own name.
I don't know if I believe him though.
At 11:15 AM,
Mutti said…
I decided I better stick with the topic at hand so I'm re-submitting the only part of my original comments that fit with the current discussion :).(darned novice)
After reading about the visit between the narrator and Jimmy Cross (years post-war), I decided that the author is the narrator. Cross referred to him either as Tim or O'Brien (I can't remember now which it was).
Now, I think that Tim the author,is so connected to the experience of Vietnam that he couldn't separate himself and that is why we are left to wonder whether he is the author, narrator, or the actual character. Writing about something so visceral would make it nearly impossible to remove yourself and your experiences completely from the story.
At 7:56 PM,
Devona said…
Since O'Brien served in Vietnam, I wonder if this is his personal therapy. I wrote tons of stories about a girl named Alexis when I was in highschool. She was really me the way I wanted to be.
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