Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried is a story with seemingly no plot, however, upon closer look you will realize that this novel is filled with many reoccurring themes and patterns that give the novel a much deeper meaning. The last 3 chapters have a way of tying the book together with the beginning and give meaning to the questions he poses about what a true war story is. The three main patterns present throughout this novel are the concepts of war and life as a soldier being unimaginable to those who have never experienced it, the burden and guilt of living, and finally the truth about this novel and war stories in general. In The Field Trip, one of the first things to notice is that he’s stopping his story, and bringing you back
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War does something to an individual that destroys them and who they were, shatters their reality of right or wrong and leaves them fragmented trying to make sense of what happened years later, if they survive. In the second to last chapter Night Life we see again that war finally got the best of Rat Kiley not being able to mentally take the stress and physical toll the war was taking on him. “I start seeing my own body. Chunks of myself. My own heart, my own kidneys. It 's like—I don 't know—it 's like staring into this huge black crystal ball. One of these nights I 'll be lying dead out there in the dark and nobody 'll find me except the bugs…(O’Brien 148)”. He finally can’t take what the war has done, and shoots his own foot to get …show more content…
(O’Brien 149)” This struck me as a very important point in bringing all these stories together. He wants to remember them all as happy and in a way that brings less pain. He goes on to talk about ‘aliveness’ in building this world in the story where we see these men. He ties the story together by explaining that all these menial events are connected because it’s bringing them and the memories back, never forgetting the horrors that they went through. They can’t talk for themselves anymore or what they experienced. Even a soldier that comes home alive cannot convey to a nation that prides itself on its patriotism and ability to win wars all of the horrors that a true war holds. He brings them back in stories, and tells us messages in this themes and patterns that leave a lasting impression, and with a final understanding that he wants us to do something about
War does something to an individual that destroys them and who they were, shatters their reality of right or wrong and leaves them fragmented trying to make sense of what happened years later, if they survive. In the second to last chapter Night Life we see again that war finally got the best of Rat Kiley not being able to mentally take the stress and physical toll the war was taking on him. “I start seeing my own body. Chunks of myself. My own heart, my own kidneys. It 's like—I don 't know—it 's like staring into this huge black crystal ball. One of these nights I 'll be lying dead out there in the dark and nobody 'll find me except the bugs…(O’Brien 148)”. He finally can’t take what the war has done, and shoots his own foot to get …show more content…
(O’Brien 149)” This struck me as a very important point in bringing all these stories together. He wants to remember them all as happy and in a way that brings less pain. He goes on to talk about ‘aliveness’ in building this world in the story where we see these men. He ties the story together by explaining that all these menial events are connected because it’s bringing them and the memories back, never forgetting the horrors that they went through. They can’t talk for themselves anymore or what they experienced. Even a soldier that comes home alive cannot convey to a nation that prides itself on its patriotism and ability to win wars all of the horrors that a true war holds. He brings them back in stories, and tells us messages in this themes and patterns that leave a lasting impression, and with a final understanding that he wants us to do something about