Curt Lemon dies in Vietnam as “he took a peculiar half step, moving from shade into bright sunlight, and the booby-trapped 105 round blew him into a tree”- there’s no other reason why he dies, there’s no message to glean (O’Brien 79). According to the “How to Tell a True War Story” chapter of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a true war story is amoral, sickening, beautiful, and seemingly infinite. “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke claims to be a war story, despite failing to reach most of O’Brien’s qualifiers. However, its companion piece, “The Mother” by May Herschel-Clark, comes much closer to fitting O’Brien’s definitions, but ultimately still falls short. Immediately, Brooke’s “The Soldier” has no dark or sickening tones, nothing
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Brooke’s poem is fleeting- the speaker is proud to be in this war, proud to have the opportunity to go out in a blaze of glory. For an instant, they reminisce on their life in England, experience a surge of patriotism- the poem ends, and not even in a manner that implies the speaker’s death, but instead in a manner that leaves an impression that the speaker has risen from their stool behind the microphone, exiting stage right in order for the next poet to have their turn. “The Mother” does not carry that same sense of brevity- even though the poem ends, there is no definite resolution; the mother’s story is not over. Each day will “raise the standard up”, each day will be harder to live; it seems as if the mother counts the days she has lived without her child (8).
However, both pieces undeniably fail to meet the amoralistic qualifier; “The Soldier” carries clear messages of finding honor in dying for one’s country, while “The Mother” describes war as a terrible thing that tears apart families and lives. Hence, they both fail. Neither story is true.
Brooke and Herschel-Clark both craft beautiful poems, despite the fact that O’Brien would not find them beautiful, sickening, amoral, or infinite enough to be
Brooke’s poem is fleeting- the speaker is proud to be in this war, proud to have the opportunity to go out in a blaze of glory. For an instant, they reminisce on their life in England, experience a surge of patriotism- the poem ends, and not even in a manner that implies the speaker’s death, but instead in a manner that leaves an impression that the speaker has risen from their stool behind the microphone, exiting stage right in order for the next poet to have their turn. “The Mother” does not carry that same sense of brevity- even though the poem ends, there is no definite resolution; the mother’s story is not over. Each day will “raise the standard up”, each day will be harder to live; it seems as if the mother counts the days she has lived without her child (8).
However, both pieces undeniably fail to meet the amoralistic qualifier; “The Soldier” carries clear messages of finding honor in dying for one’s country, while “The Mother” describes war as a terrible thing that tears apart families and lives. Hence, they both fail. Neither story is true.
Brooke and Herschel-Clark both craft beautiful poems, despite the fact that O’Brien would not find them beautiful, sickening, amoral, or infinite enough to be