While one might be inclined to believe that the writer is not very similar to Tim's character in the book due to the fictional elements in the collection of stories, the reality is that they are actually very similar. "Readers should note and remember that although the actual and fictional O'Briens have some experiences in common, the Things They Carried is a work of fiction and not a non-fiction autobiography" (Colella 1)
¶ … Things They Carried" (O'Brien) "the Things They Carried" Tim O'Brien's 1990 collection of war stories "The Things They Carried" is focused on putting across a realistic image of warfare as seen from a first-person perspective
O'Brien apparently thinks of short stories as being an end themselves and as providing readers with the opportunity to see the bigger picture by being familiarized with characters and situations they see in several stories. This strategy is especially effective, as "the inter-woven stories (some of which are more like commentaries on stories than actual stories) collectively form a dramatic and discursive novel) (Society for the Study of the Short Story)
The guy's dead, he kept saying, which seemed profound -- the guy's dead. I mean really" (O'Brien)
it's about the ways people try to withstand the crushing weight of their consciences and their loneliness. Finally, it is about stories and how stories are tools for personal survival" (Fox 1995, p
O'Brien writes that a "true war story is never moral… if a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie" (O'Brien 65)
O'Brien writes that a "true war story is never moral… if a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie" (O'Brien 65)
Other stories are told from the perspective of Tim today, a writer, husband, and father living in safety in Massachusetts, far away from the horrors of war. According to the Washington Post literary critic, Joseph Peschel, O'Brien's novel is not fictional, or non-fictional, but "meta-fictional" (Peschel 2010)
Even in nonfiction narratives that purport to be truly 'real,' there is an element of falsehood, O'Brien would contend. "A gap inevitably opens up between the imaginary casting of an event (the fictive event) and the factual details of that event (the historical chronicle)," particularly in as emotionally wrenching a situation as Vietnam (Timmerman, 2000, p
He was smiling. Vaguely, he was aware of how quiet the day was; the sullen paddies, yet he could not bring himself to worry about matters of security (O'Brien 1990)
Its gets bad enough for him to allow his men to smoke, drugs, drop important things during long marches and make jokes at each others expenses in very carefree manner. His irresponsible attitude towards the war and his men comes to a halt when one of his close men Ted Lavender is shot dead during a cross fire (Bonn 1994)
However in case of the Vietnam war it becomes impossible for Cross to gain that kind of leadership for his unit because the object or the end result of the war itself is confusing and not thoroughly defines. Similar to battles and operations that constituted the war; Cross fails to demonstrate the clear ability to fulfill his role (Coffey, 1990)
Such men suffer so that others don't have to bear the brunt of the guilt and confusion. In a very strange way Cross is not only linked with Christ in a theoretical manner as in they both share the same initials and also the idea of cross, but also it is obvious from the nature of their roles, just like Christ suffered the pain for his men, Cross also suffered the guilt and pain for his units men who were being shot (Harris, 1990)
For instance, Lt. Cross attempts to persuade himself of his own competence by relying on standard operating procedure after Lavender is killed as a means to exonerate himself from feelings of personal culpability in Lavender's death as well as his pathetic neediness for Martha's love (Karnow, 1983)
Since in actual he doesn't really care about the war and does not want to be in a leading position. Hence when he is given the responsibility to lead several men on the fire front of the war he is unsure of how to deal with the responsibility and is not sure what exactly his job his (Bates, 1987)
Its gets bad enough for him to allow his men to smoke, drugs, drop important things during long marches and make jokes at each others expenses in very carefree manner. His irresponsible attitude towards the war and his men comes to a halt when one of his close men Ted Lavender is shot dead during a cross fire (Bonn 1994)
The most constant theme of the story is that O'Brien tries to remember and re create the events that took place in the past especially his time in the army and his service in the Vietnamese war. During this process he also tries to make sense of these memories and asks many important questions regarding them (Calloway, 1995)
Jimmy Cross who is ill experienced not fully equipped and is made the leader of the Alpha Company. Years after the war, the two spent an afternoon together remembering their friends and those who were killed (Herzog, 1992)
That gives the novel its title, but it also gives the characters more "character." Author Leslie Adams writes, "The description of the items each man carried gives the reader some initial impression of the character's personality, but the items also represent the private anxieties of each soldier" (Adams 91)
O'Brien notes that the book is fiction, and yet, many of the characters seem so real they must have existed, and the lines of reality blur even more when the reader realizes the narrator of these short stories strung together into a novel is named Tim O'Brien. One critic, Catherine Calloway, notes "The relationship between fiction and reality arises early in the text when the reader learns the first of many parallels that emerge as the book progresses: that the protagonist and narrator, like the real author of The Things They Carried, is named Tim O'Brien" (Calloway 250)