Kacher 1

Kelsey Kacher Story-Beauty: Another Ambiguity in The Things They Carried ! Beauty can be difcult to nd in war because of the ugly cruelty and death that seems

inherent to it. When beauty is identied in war, it can serve to relieve pain and memorialize soldiers, shifting focus from negative aspects to positive and giving greater purpose to its cause. This beauty, however, if not focused on the correct subjects, can serve to distract from the sacrice of war and minimize the loss caused by it; while some representations may inspire, others often detract. In reaction to Maya Lins Vietnam Memorial, for example, many saw the monument only as a reminder of how many had died rather than the great cause for which they had died. Referring to this black gash, The New Republic explained that memorials are built to give context and, possibly, meaning to suffering that is otherwise incomprehensible. . . . To treat the Vietnam dead like the victims of some monstrous trafc accident is more than a disservice to history; it is a disservice to the memory of the 57,000 (Marling). Because the memorial failed to evoke any genuine emotion and only provided empty names with no background history, many claimed that it had fallen short of its goal to memorialize the lives lost. The aesthetics of a war, as in the Vietnam Memorial, usually distract from the actual sacrices made. ! Tim OBriens novel The Things They Carried, however, seems to provide a completely

different view of beautythat in its placement in moments of extreme violence or pain, beauty provides insight into the persons past and future and brings a reader to understand the painful loss in that moment. In the novel, beauty is found in some of the most uniqueand perhaps most disturbingmoments, challenging readers perceptions of what is beautiful. It is the ambiguity

Kacher 2

created by nding beauty in the most bizarre momentseven deaththat brings the reader to feel deeper emotion in connection to the Vietnam War. ! While the critical conversation about the ambiguity of The Things They Carried has

mainly surrounded the meaning of truth in the novel, it has failed to note the similarly essential meaning of beauty in it. With OBriens tangential descriptions of beauty that create stories of the dying characters possible future or past, the book serves an ethical purpose not only in its storytelling as explored by Robin Silbergleid (132), but in this conspicuous distortion of beauty. Though Catherine Calloway studies the death of Curt Lemon and mentions the beauty of the scene, she focuses on the ambiguous facts of the story and the metaction it conveys, never mentioning the conspicuous role of beauty in the same scene. Steven P. Liparulo suggests of Things that we might imagine relationships between form and content as more than aesthetic concerns and as involved in the work of theorizing and deconstructing commonplace understandings of American participation in the Vietnam War (76). Undoubtedly, readers can and should extract meaning from such unusual placements of beauty in death scenes. ! In this paper, I will discuss the exaggerated beauty that occurs in the most violent

moments of the novel to show that just as critics claim that story-truth allows readers to better understand war, so story-beauty aids readers in comprehending loss, specically the loss of personal histories and promising futures. It is the description in story-beautythe aesthetics of the scenethat sparks imagination, uncovering lost stories, pasts, and memories of the deceased soldiers. Additionally, the precise descriptions can allude to bright futures, hopes, and potentialities of such young soldiers. As story-beauty reveals these elements, the reader comprehends the excruciating loss of not only each soldier involved in war, but their stories, their memories, and their potential contributions to society. Such an understanding evokes

Kacher 3

emotions that more realistically memorialize the soldiers as readers more accurately understand each soldier and their sacrice. ! Recognizing a sense of beauty in war as a way of dealing with pain is a practice not

uncommon to society. Because of the painful and gruesome endurances of war, people (soldiers or not) search for beauty so as to ease the difcult aspects of war and nd some form of the positiveor some shred of humanityin it. Fiona Tolan elaborates this idea in her defense of beauty and art, claiming that they overwhelm brutalism, supporting the idea that beauty could somehow bring humanity back into war (375). Lois Carlson makes a fascinating discovery of beauty in connection with war, contesting that beauty and peace can be found amongst war protestors. He recounts an experience, saying, Instead of hurrying to cross in front of [the protestors], I found . . . myself standing there, crying at the beauty of it all. The heartfelt chanting, the calm alertness of the police ofcers, the clarity of the late spring day. It brought back memories of the early 1970s and my own marching in the streets against the Vietnam War. Though protestors do not commonly evoke thoughts of beauty, Carlson brings in the surrounding aestheticsspecically sights and soundsof the moment that heightened the emotion of an event that is usually connected with discord, war, and violence. Just as Carlson nds beauty in events connected with war, so OBrien nds beauty in the stories of soldiers in even the most discordant of moments. In Lieutenant Jimmy Crosss case, it was Martha, the girl back home (1) who provided beauty throughout his experiences. With his memories of Martha and her virgin beauty, he was able to shift his focus from the stress and worry of Vietnam and reect on things more pleasing. Clearly, beauty is used here as a focus to ease his pain and motivate him to move forward.

Kacher 4

Though nding such beauty in war may ease pain, it usually proves to be detrimental to

soldiers in war by distracting them rather than relieving them. Though Cross may have found comfort in his memories of Martha, he found he had to shut down the daydreams (23) because of the distractions they proved to be. He was so distracted from his task at hand by the allconsuming thoughts of Marthas beauty that it became detrimental to his work. Stephen Gundle provides interesting commentary on beautys detrimental effects in war, claiming that beauty continued to be seen as a hallmark of . . . civilization [and] was linked to ideas of national superiority and conquest, (359) demonstrating that not only has beauty distracted soldiers as Martha distracts Cross in Things, but that it also has caused wars, pride, grief, jealousy, and death. Diana Shaffer discusses one of the best-known examples, Helen of Troy, who as the paragon of female beauty and sexuality, generates suspicion and strife . . . [and] provokes a cataclysmic war (244) all because her beauty distracted men from keeping peace and shifted their focus to attaining her. OBrien subtly comments on this idea of female beauty serving only as a detriment to war by identifying the harmfully distracting beauty of Martha as Cross reason for Lavenders death. Cross recognizes her as a detriment and burns the objects he kept of hers, though [he] couldnt burn the blame that he assumed was his (22). In doing so, OBrien deconstructs readers concepts of female beauty early in the book, illustrating it as having a negative impact on war. ! While OBrien may use beauty to bring readers to understand war, he does this by

creating a kind of story-beauty that identies genuine beauty in exquisitely descriptive death scenes and thus obscures the readers concept of beauty. This story-beauty is effectively demonstrated as OBrien, instead of giving brief, gruesome details about Curt Lemons death, describes the scene with the words shining, handsome, lean, and beautiful (67),

Kacher 5

providing a dazzling setting and positive tone with no warning of the coming horror. In similarly exquisite diction he describes the graceful death itself as the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms (67). Here OBrien plays an aesthetic game (Liparulo 76) by leading the reader to dismiss the gore of horric scenes because of the aesthetically pleasing way in which he describes them. A normally disturbing scene of this mans slaughter is instead immortalized in a moment of dazzling grace in the way he is swept into the owering foliage above. In emphasizing an element of war that is usually overlooked, OBrien invites the reader to reevaluate the perception of beauty and its role in war. As the reader begins to sense a new source of beauty in the most violent moments of the novel, beauty becomes as ambiguous as the truth that critics have addressed. ! OBriens established story-beauty serves not as a harmful distraction in understanding

war, but instead invites readers to engage in understanding loss through beauty in war. As readers see beauty in such surprising scenes, they come to . . . reassess their values and their sense of the good (Tolan 376). Instead of seeing death scenes as violent and gruesome, readers are presented with a sense of goodness in these moments. While a focus on the trivial beauty of a woman may distract from war, the beauty of a soldiers death like that of Curt Lemon leads to thoughts of the vitality and promising future of a soldier who is killed. In OBriens account of the dead boy with the star-shaped hole for an eye, the narrator ignores Kiowas cries to [c]ome on, stop staring as he takes in the gruesome scene (120). It is in this violent scene that the narrator is inspired by the bizarre story-beauty therein. His description of the grisly scene peculiarly incorporates beauty as he observes the boy he killed, noticing that his eyebrows were thin and arched like a womans . . . [and had] long, shapely ngers . . . a womans walk . . .

Kacher 6

smooth skin. (121). The reader is presented with a surprising set of facts about the dead boy, and a simple, sad story of a dead Vietnamese soldier suddenly becomes something much more real and poignant because of the imagination inspired by beauty. ! Readers experience this new way of engaging with war through story-beauty as OBrien

juxtaposes the detrimental beauty of a women to the moving beauty of a gruesome scene of death. OBrien uses decidedly feminine attributes to describe the death scene of the star-eyed boy, and by doing so, a direct juxtaposition is established between the feminine beauty of Martha that led to Crosss guilt and the feminine beauty of the boy that led to a moving sense of the loss of life. Two moments of feminine beauty with such different results serve to convey the unique ambiguity of OBriens story-beauty working in the text. OBrien further develops this technique in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. Mary Anne embodies the ultimate feminine ideal of beauty, yet when combined with war, the results are chilling. Instead of the ideal beauty, Mary Anne is changed into a hardened and grotesque gure in the story when at the girls throat was a necklace of human tongues (105). Even a symbol of feminine beauty such as a necklace is deformed, again challenging the readers perception of where beauty liesnot in feminine beauty, but in the noble scenes of death that are gloried throughout the book. As OBrien establishes the feminine ideal of Mary Anne as being exploited by war through her transformation from lipstick and American outts to tongue necklaces and slaughter, he again deemphasizes the importance of feminine beauty in women and the importance of the more signicant and meaningful beauty in death. ! As such horric death scenes are gloried through beautiful descriptions and through the

juxtaposition of negative experiences with women in the novel, OBrien then deepens the readers understanding of death by providing imagined pasts that provide a deeper sense of loss

Kacher 7

to the reader. His story-beauty not only provides emotion to convey the deep loss that occurs in war, but also imagination to convey a past that seems to give life to the individual. In the narrative of the star-eyed boy, OBrien allows the feminine beauty of the boy to lead him to imagine what his previous life had been like and what kind of boy he had been. By surveying that he was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man . . . a scholar, maybe (118), an assumption is made that then leads the narrator to create an entire past for the boy, imagining that the boy would not have wanted to be a soldier and that he liked books (121, 119). The narrator simply allows the beauty of the boy and aesthetics of the scene to lead him to imagine what his past and history were like. With merely the catalyst of beauty, he creates the world of this boy, and in doing so, is completely shaken by the realization of what he had done in killing a young boy with such a story. This, then, leads the reader to not simply feel remote sadness or perhaps a vague disgust for a violent death in war, but instead focuses on the loss of the history and memories of a young Vietnamese boy. It is in understanding this loss that a reader can begin to comprehend the sacrice made in war. ! While readers understand loss of the past through the star-eyed boy, they additionally

understand the loss of potential and future success as revealed through OBriens story-beauty in the gorgeous death of Curt Lemon. OBrien directly identies that when [Lemon] died it was almost beautiful (67). With the hint of his promise as a handsome man with a successful and happy future, a much more painful realization is conveyed to the reader of the loss of potential that occurs in war not just with Lemon, but with every lost soldier. OBrien later heightens Lemons potentialities by relating the story of The Dentist. Here Lemon conquers his fear of dentists by insisting that he had a toothache when there wasnt one, merely wanting to prove to himself that it was possible to overcome his dear of dentists. Not only is Lemon a healthy, good-

Kacher 8

looking young soldier, he is one who is determined to conquer any challenge before him, clearly establishing the potential of a full and successful life because of his courage. As the story is relayed, it is difcult to miss the sense of tragic loss because of the huge potential that lay in Lemon. The pain is furthered as readers understand that this is one example of one soldier, when there are thousands who died in Vietnam. Interestingly, this understanding of the loss is all begun by the beautiful description of his death, again an example of the power of story-beauty in emphasizing loss in war. ! It is this gradually established story-beauty that allows readers to feel a different kind of

emotion in connection to the Vietnam War. Just as the narrator sits in stunned shock at the stareyed boy he killed because he imagines the past of the boy, readers are also stunned by this loss because of OBriens story-beauty, experiencing similar emotions to those who had experienced war rsthand. This deeper, more cutting type of emotion only comes about because readers recognize the loss of both the pasts and futures of soldierstheir histories and their future successes. OBrien uses beauty as a tool to bring readers to this realization and to understand that, though there is deep, painful, tragic loss that occurs in war, one can memorialize it through recognizing the beauty and signicance in what was lost. It is in the imaginings of the successful future that could have been as with Curt Lemon and the stories never shared as with the star-eyed boy that OBrien offers his readers. Though it is a different kind of beauty that OBrien creates, it is one that offers a memorial more signicant than Maya Lins emotionless names listed in stone; it offers the pasts and futures of the soldiers lives.

Kacher 9

Works Cited Calloway, Catherine. How to Tell a True War Story: Meta-Fiction in The Things They Carried. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 36.4 (1995): 249-57. Carlson, Lois. Peace: The Fiber of Our Being. The Christian Science Monitor (2012). Print. Cembalest, Robin. A Terrible Beauty? ARTnews 110.8 (2011): 48-9. Print. Chen, Tina. Unraveling the Deeper Meaning: Exile and the Embodied Poetics of Displacement in Tim OBriens The Things They Carried. Contemporary Literature 39.1 (1998): 77-98. Print. Feldman, Karen. The Shape of Mourning: Reading, Aesthetic Cognition, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Word Image 19.4 (2003): 296. Print. Gundle, Stephen. Feminine Beauty, National Identity and Political Conict in Postwar Italy, 1945-1954. Contemporary European History 8.3 (1999): 359-78. Print. Liparulo, Steven P. Incense and Ashes: The Postmodern Work of Refutation in Three Vietnam War Novels. War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities 15.1 (2003): 71-94. Print. OBrien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York, Houghton Mifin Harcourt, 1990. Print. Silbergleid, Robin. Making Things Present: Tim OBriens Autobiographical Metaction. Contemporary Literature 50.1 (2009): 129-55. Print. Tolan, Fiona. Painting While Rome Burns: Ethics and Aesthetics in Pat Barkers Life Class and Zadie Smiths On Beauty. Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature 29.2 (2010): 375-93. Print.

Kacher 10

Tulloch, John. Icons of War and Terror Media Images in an Age of International Risk. Eds. Richard Warwick Blood 1947 and Inc ebrary. Abingdon, Oxon: New York: Routledge, 2012. Print.