The Things They Carried
War is a wretched battlefield. It twists the minds of soldiers, scarring them with experiences that can last a lifetime. During war, there are some experiences that one cannot verbally formulate into words that truly capture what had happened. As the author of “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’brien writes with a style that brings his stories to life, as it allows the readers to be able to feel the situation as if them themselves were in it. Tim O’Brien accomplishes such a feat by challenging the standard conventions and manipulating it to his need. He deviates from the standard use of perspective and chronological order yet he conforms to the fundamentals of characterization. His choice of deviation yet conformation …show more content…
The chapter ”On the Rainy River” opens up to Tim O’Brien’s first person point of view, allowing us to see his stream of consciousness as he recounts his story of guilt and shame about being drafted to the Vietnam war. We follow Tom O’Brien as he leads us to the moment where he has the chance to swim away from the draft. His integrity creates conflict between what he decides is the right thing to do and what he wants.As he tells the story,he uses sentence variations to add effect to the scene. “I saw a seven-year-old boy in a white cowboy ...sixteen-year-old kid decked out for his first prom, looking spiffy in a white tux”, this creates a similar adrenaline effect as O’Brien must have been experiencing then switches from first to second point of view. He places you into the story. He creates a bridge overcoming the relationship of just reader and author. Using questions such as “What would you do? Would you jump?...Would it feel like dying? Would you cry, as I did?” He directly confronts the readers by addressing “you” . He forces the reader to feel the heavy burden of a single …show more content…
His use of perspective, manipulation of narrative, and non-linear storyline all contributes to his ability of being able to create a meta-fictional text that doesn’t just tell you what the characters are feeling but shows you, makes you feel, makes you understand what they had gone through. ““I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” Tim O’Brien’s deviation from the standard conventions creates realistic stories that one would not assume to be fictional. He reveals that his stories may not be true but without background knowledge, we are lead onto believe that they are. Since we, as readers, were able to clearly perceive the emotional truth about war that Tim O’Brien wanted to convey. “By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened, like the night in the shit field, and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain.” We realize that the emotional truth isn 't something can be easily formulated into words like the factual truth, you need more to bring out the empathy and many feelings. “But you can 't say that. All you can do is tell it one more time, patiently, adding and
War is a wretched battlefield. It twists the minds of soldiers, scarring them with experiences that can last a lifetime. During war, there are some experiences that one cannot verbally formulate into words that truly capture what had happened. As the author of “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’brien writes with a style that brings his stories to life, as it allows the readers to be able to feel the situation as if them themselves were in it. Tim O’Brien accomplishes such a feat by challenging the standard conventions and manipulating it to his need. He deviates from the standard use of perspective and chronological order yet he conforms to the fundamentals of characterization. His choice of deviation yet conformation …show more content…
The chapter ”On the Rainy River” opens up to Tim O’Brien’s first person point of view, allowing us to see his stream of consciousness as he recounts his story of guilt and shame about being drafted to the Vietnam war. We follow Tom O’Brien as he leads us to the moment where he has the chance to swim away from the draft. His integrity creates conflict between what he decides is the right thing to do and what he wants.As he tells the story,he uses sentence variations to add effect to the scene. “I saw a seven-year-old boy in a white cowboy ...sixteen-year-old kid decked out for his first prom, looking spiffy in a white tux”, this creates a similar adrenaline effect as O’Brien must have been experiencing then switches from first to second point of view. He places you into the story. He creates a bridge overcoming the relationship of just reader and author. Using questions such as “What would you do? Would you jump?...Would it feel like dying? Would you cry, as I did?” He directly confronts the readers by addressing “you” . He forces the reader to feel the heavy burden of a single …show more content…
His use of perspective, manipulation of narrative, and non-linear storyline all contributes to his ability of being able to create a meta-fictional text that doesn’t just tell you what the characters are feeling but shows you, makes you feel, makes you understand what they had gone through. ““I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” Tim O’Brien’s deviation from the standard conventions creates realistic stories that one would not assume to be fictional. He reveals that his stories may not be true but without background knowledge, we are lead onto believe that they are. Since we, as readers, were able to clearly perceive the emotional truth about war that Tim O’Brien wanted to convey. “By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened, like the night in the shit field, and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain.” We realize that the emotional truth isn 't something can be easily formulated into words like the factual truth, you need more to bring out the empathy and many feelings. “But you can 't say that. All you can do is tell it one more time, patiently, adding and