The Things They Carried Quote Analysis

To Remember Or Not To Remember
The lives of the dead. That is the last chapter of The Things They Carried and by the name of the chapter one could have guessed that this chapter revolves around the deceased. Most people would honor the fact that the author, Tim O’Brien, talks about keeping the dead alive with stories, but should that be respected? However, although it is good to respect and remember the dead, is it ethical to write about the deceased when they have no say in it or is there a fine line on when you can and when you can’t. In the Things They Carried the whole book always has to do with Vietnam and the times involving going to, coming back from, or with fellow comrades after the war. However, although in the last chapter he …show more content…
There are thousands probably even millions of biographies and commemorative writings and such but it begs to question are they ethical or not? It could go both ways. If the deceased say they want to be written about after death then it is ok. If they say not to be written about then it is not. It is when they say nothing that you venture into an unclear area. The lack of rights for the deceased has frightening implications for the living. One day we’ll all be absent, with no control over our stories, whether grandkids, biographers, or no one tells them at all. We spend our entire lives constructing the story of ourselves; the thought of someone dismantling our version is alarming. When we are anxious to preserve the memory of the dead, whether through biographies or photographs, it’s because some irrational part of us believes they see what we are doing and disapprove or approve. One could argue it should be the deceased bloodline that gets a say in if it is written or not. All over time and history though we have stories about people that have no relation to whom they are writing about and one has to ask if it is …show more content…
Even in schools, just look at history books, anywhere from elementary level to graduate school. It is writings about people from history and it will talk about their importance and their successes or their failures. This also applies to movies and television too, there are plenty of movies and TV shows that focus on history or the deceased but one has to ask would the decease approve. Last year a super popular movie came out called American Sniper and although his family approved of it one might ask the person the movie is based on, Chris Kyle is that what he would’ve wanted. Is a movie about the stress and pressure of his life in the military how he wanted to be remembered? However I can be no hypocrite. When my best friend, Leighton, passed away in an accident right in front of my eyes I felt how O’Brien felt. You want to remember the fallen because it’s hard to see them disappear. We held and still hold memorial baseball tournaments and even raised money for a scholarship in his name we just have to think if that’s what he wanted. What gave us solace is that it’s what his family wanted it and are grateful we do it and they are the ones even to this day are still having a hard time grasping it. The dead will always be remembered and more times then not they don’t have a say in what happens after their death unless they left specific directions, so we have to ask ourselves wether what we are doing is ethical or un ethical and