Memories In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Memory is what keeps the past alive, holding on to every detail or experience in someone’s lifetime. Memories are created and preserved, and often shared with others through storytelling. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the main character Offred preserves memories of her life and family prior to society’s transformation into a theocratic dystopia called Gilead. In The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas is given the ability to hold the memories of the past prior to the development of the dystopian society where everyone is alarmingly equal. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, soldiers carry memories of their lives prior to the war and emotional burdens from the war. They share these burdens and war memories through storytelling. In …show more content…
Jonas is responsible for carrying the weight and knowledge of the past through memories, so other people do not have to do so. Jonas does not have memories of his own past as Offred and Tim O’Brien do, but rather his memories of are the past of what society was before it had transformed into a dystopia of uniformity. Jonas sits in a room everyday to “re-experience the memories again and again,” until he is able to understand what they mean and why they are important (Lowry 121). While O’Brien and other soldiers are able to share these memories with others through storytelling, Jonas is forbidden from sharing the memories that he was given with anyone, even though he feels that “memories need to be shared” (Lowry 154). But both Jonas and O’Brien feel pressure to keep the past alive by preserving their memories. It is Jonas’ duty to carry the weight and burden of those memories to protect the people of society. O’Brien and other soldiers feel pressure from their memories because they include traumatic experiences and gruesome details of war. Some of their memories are things that they never want to experience or think about again, but according to O’Brien, “the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget” (O’Brien 34). Similar to Jonas, there are certain memories that he enjoys receiving and there are others that he wishes he never received, but he cannot …show more content…
Memories are the connection between their existence in the past, the present and the future. Every lesson learned, mistake made, and relationship formed are chronicled via memories that define who the characters are as individuals and give them a foundation upon which to move forward. Without their memories, their histories are forever lost leaving them blindly heading into the future where the risk of repeating mistakes is high, cherished moments with others are lost, and their individuality is all but