The Things They Carried
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Tim OBrien, an author and avid reader, grew up near the borders of Iowa and South Dakota in Worthington, Minnesota, a typical small town in Midwestern America. He was born on October 1, 1946, making Tim a member of the post-World War II baby boomer generation. As a scrappy 18 year old, OBrien traveled to St. Paul and enrolled at Macalester College. Throughout his years in college, OBrien came to oppose the war in Vietnam. He didnt launch violent protests, as some radical activist groups had done, but instead joined the campaign of Eugene McCarthy, a presidential candidate from 1968 who openly opposed the fighting in Vietnam. OBrien, who was an excellent student, completed his undergraduate degree by earning a bachelors degree in government and politics in 1968. He had dreams of immediately attending graduate school and had made plans to continue his political science studies. His dreams were abruptly shattered as OBrien was drafted for service in the military in 1968, just two short weeks after completing his undergraduate studies and months before he could be attend graduate school.
OBrien had always thought that the war was wrong and his initial thoughts were of fleeing to Canada, though he did not attempt it. Instead, OBrien gave in to the pressure of the people around him to participate in the war because it was his “patriotic duty”, and in August of 1968 Tim OBrien was sent to basic training. Following boot camp, it wasnt very long before OBrien found himself in Vietnam fighting on the front line. OBrien was what you would call a “grunt”, and served as a Radio Telephone Operator or as a Rifleman. He was wounded twice while in Vietnam and ultimately rose to the rank of sergeant.
When completing his tour in March of 1970, OBrien immediately went back to school, this time attending Harvard University to expand his knowledge of government and political science. It wasnt until much later, in 1990, did OBrien publish a book detailing some of his experiences in Vietnam. Though the novel is a work of fiction, OBrien blends enough fact and tales of personal experience with these fictitious events to bring you a believable and revealing story. Because OBrien incorporates his personal tales into the account, the material is written with a high level of detail, and as a result the reader is able to get a firm grasp on what it was like to be in the shoes of the narrator. I think that the author probably chose to write the book as a kind of therapy. Through narration, OBrien seems to be at peace with the disturbing events of Vietnam throughout the depiction of his chronicles. Even better than going to see a psychiatrist, Tim OBrien uses the art of storytelling to ease his troubled mind. The more he writes, the better he feels. However, the healing process is slow; after all, it took OBrien nearly twenty years to write about the specifics of his trip to Vietnam.
OBrien begins by complicating the presentation of his story by introducing a fictional protagonist that shares his name, “Tim OBrien”. “Tim OBrien” the soldier should not be confused with the author, Tim OBrien. Throughout the novel, “Tim” is remembering the past, and poring over the details of his memories of Vietnam in search of meaning. “Tim” begins by describing the characters of the story and telling you what each carried. Though many items that the soldiers toted were identical, each soldier was unique. Henry Dobbins is the big guy, so he carries extra food along with a heavy machine gun and his girlfriends pantyhose. Kiowa carries a hatchet which he can use to hunt if necessary, along with a Holy Bible and a pair of moccasins. Ted Lavender, who is too anxious to face the war, carries tranquilizer pills and marijuana. Mitchell Sanders carried brass knuckles, condoms, and the units 28 pound radio. Dave Jensen carried soap, foot powder, dental floss, and vitamin pills. Norman Bowker simply carried a diary. The level of detail in which “OBrien” describes these characters will get increasingly more complex throughout the story. The first character featured was Lt. Jimmy Cross, the leader of Alpha Company. Lt. Cross carries photographs of his girlfriend, Martha, memories of their date together, and carries regrets that he did not try to be with her prior to leaving for Vietnam. Lt. Cross carries all the things that the other men carry, such as weapons, tear gas, explosives, ammunitions, entrenching tools, grenades, flak jackets, boots, and rations, but in addition to all that, he carries the lives of his men.
“Tim” recalls a time, many years after the end of the war, when Jimmy Cross visits him at his home. They spend the whole day together reminiscing while looking at old photographs and talking about the memories of the war, both good and bad. When Jimmy Cross gets up to leave, “OBrien” tells him that he wants to right a story about their visit. Cross agrees as long as certain unmentionables werent included, and “OBrien” agreed.
“Tim” continues by remembering how Mitchell Sanders picked lice off his body to send them to his Ohio draft board, or how Henry Dobbins and Norman Bowker dig a foxhole each night and play checkers. He insists that the bad memories live on and never stop happening. His guilt has not ceased and “OBriens” daughter, Kathleen, advises him to stop writing about the war, and to write about something else. “OBrien” simply tells her, “Nevertheless, writing about what one remembers is a means of coping with those things one cant forget.”
In continuing his therapy through storytelling, “OBrien” shares a story about himself and his American Experience. It was the summer of 1968; “Tim” had just been drafted into military service. He recounts his thoughts on receiving the draft notice, and his feelings of resentment due to the fact that his educational accomplishments and graduate school potential should have been enough to excuse him from service in the United States Army. He spends the summer working at a pig slaughterhouse and meat packing plant. The work is nasty and horrible, and “Tim” weighs whether or not this life is preferable over a life of war in Vietnam. In mid-July, in a blurb that is entirely American, “OBrien” begins to contemplate whether or not he should cross the border into Canada to avoid the draft. He fears losing respectability within the community, being ridiculed by his peers, or being caught by the authorities, and so he weighs the morality of this decision. One day, while at work, “OBrien”