Mingxuan Yue/Duidui

Things they carried essay

4/12/17

Things We Carried

To learn more about the Vietnam war and its effects on American

peoples lives, The things they carried might be one of the top choices to

learn about that period in a more objective and personal way. There is so

much high flow of emotional conflicts and figurative descriptions about

humanity and the war impact on different people than usual traditional war

fictions. Thus, the war stories are highlighted by literary devices and

narrative elements. The things they carried is composed of twenty-two

separate but connected short chapters, so that readers can pick the book up

anywhere they want and are still able to read along with it. It is more likely

to be a war drama, which uses the magical realism to show the truest nature

of life and human instincts. OBrien uses an untraditional way to recount the

short stories in the book with high applications of narrative elements such as

descriptions of setting, plots, and characters. Because of his usage of

different narrative devices, he elevates his production and brings the readers

with a lot of joy reading.

 Firstly, the consistent setting is incorporated with figurative literary

devices, which shows the variability under immobile comparative social

surroundings. The setting of the entire story is only in the Vietnam War, but

the stories are told from different perspectives and point of views. Although

most of the stories are from the first person perspective, the changes in the

settings all highlight the first persons development. For example, in the

chapter in the field, he uses the point of view from the first person to

express the responsibilities that he should take for Kiowas death and how

the memories come into his mind when he revisits the battlefield once with

his little daughter in the chapter Good Form. However, the existence of his

daughter, Kathleen, who is from the description of the third person

perspective, makes the inner feelings rooted in different peoples hearts and

synthesizes a huge difference. This is showed in several quotes, such as Ten

billion places we could've set up last night, the man picks a latrine."(In the

Field.28) When they are on the battlefield where Kiowa fought to the death,

Sanders says this to Jimmy Cross to try to comfort him. This is from a third

person perspective to understand and feel what the first person is feeling,

and it is hugely influenced by the setting of the battlefield. Sometimes, the

existence of the third party can also be a part of the environment, and its

tremendous impact on the central idea cannot be ignored. The whole social

atmosphere becomes hefty but suddenly warm because of the consolation.

This significant contrast also advances the overall thesis and makes the

story-telling process develop into a more three-dimensional state, where

readers can see themselves from Kathleen but show more sympathy to

Jimmy Cross. However, the changes in different perspectives and point of

views are always affected by the settings. For example, in chapter love,

the storytelling way is switched to a first person central narrator by

describing conversations with another character, which is influenced by the

setting in the first chapter and further indicates that he is impacted by what

happened directly. The application of literary devices advances the language

and the impression for readers in general when OBrien was trying to explain

more about the settings. The way that he tries to pursue to touch the readers

is applied efficiently in the descriptions. Readers can quickly get involved in

the plots as it is realistic enough to drive them obsessive with the fluidity of

the stories going on. The connections between different chapters are all

obscure but existing, and those are majorly involved in the explanation of the

settings crossing among all of the chapters. Literary devices used for setting

make the historical recounting into a figurative war drama, which is the

variability under stability in a more intriguing way of expression.

Second, the plots occupy in a repetitive form but not redundant order

throughout the twenty-two short chapters. Indications and foreshadowing are

everywhere between different sections, not only are incorporated in settings,

but also are in the similarities of the various plots in various stories. For

example, the deaths of three people, Lavender, Kiowa, and Lemon are

always mentioned in different scenarios. However, those are foreshadowed

since the very beginning of the book and further symbolize different things.
The death of Kiowa symbolizes the deaths of soldiers in the Vietnam war, the

death of Lemon represents the deaths of friends, and the death of Lavender

means the tragic ending of troops that are not under effective control. When

the author recounts how people felt sorry for their conflicts such as Ted

Lavenders death, the whole story shifts to a more peaceful rhythm. After all,

the whole story is changed back again to more conflicts such as Kiowas

death and Azars reckless attitude going along with it. Those make it very

likely for the readers to have strong impression toward inevitable conflicts in

specific chapters and made the entire story-telling process to be more lively.

Details are illustrated from different perspectives to reflect on things that

happened, which is mentioned previously. Touching more on the aspect of

plots, the incorporation of details makes the whole story full of credibility and

validity to persuade the readers to believe in the war impression for OBrien.

However, it is very easy for the readers to read and understand the plots

because although the connections can be ignored in some way, the

reminders of what happened in different scenes are certainly crucial for them

to analyze and pick out from their memories later on. OBrien is trying to

write down as many as real war stories as possible, but the plots are

incredibly dramatic because there is usually a happy ending in novels or

fictions. Just like how OBrien expresses this feeling with his little daughter,

Daddy, tell the truth, Kathleen can say, did you ever kill anybody? And I

can say, honestly, Of course not. Or I can say, honestly, Yes. (Good

Form.11-2) He concerns about the story truth and happening truth, and this
situation shows the struggles what he is facing as a writer. The realistic

exposure of wartime plots makes the whole story contradict with the

traditional Hollywood-ized writing style but can have the same and even

better effects to attract the readers. The repetitions of plots are good in this

one, and the stories are restituted to a very high similarity level comparing

to reality.

Finally, the simplicity of the characters descriptions leads to an ultimate

sophistication in pathing more layers beyond the story. There is usually only

one or two major characters in one chapter, which are all very impressive. It

also enlightens the focus on a few characters to dig deeper instead of

spreading attention way too thinly. For example, OBrien uses himself as a

particular protagonist but only in different developmental stages in his life.

Tim, the soldier, is expressed in in the field and other chapters in the

battlefield or warfare. Tim, the writer, is demonstrates in Good form who is

trying to make all those memories count. Tim the Kid uses all backlashes to

recall a childhood life and make the stories get more of emotional colors.

Nevertheless, all of those three different characters are all one person. This

explains entirely about how different a persons life could be in different time

periods but still under the same mental supporting forces. The sophistication

in alternating characteristics brings the readers more feelings of how simple

it is to have a complicated life. The mobility that characters undergo

developed the theme very well. For example, in the chapter in the field,

there seemed like to be only one thing happened which referred to Kiowas
death, and meanwhile people are trying to find his body. However,

throughout this process, Jimmy Crosss mental development is further

illustrated between his inner struggles and outside forces. The contrasts

between himself and Azar further highlighted this idea. OBrien does not like

to expose a characters feeling or personality by directly exposing it, but

rather, he uses a more indicated way by conversations or behaviors inserted

in the plots to make the readers have their personal judgment. All of those

tactics make the simple stories reveal in front of the readers mind and make

all of those characters alive there.

The applications of different narrative elements make OBriens writing

more compelling and three dimensional in front of the readers. All of those

can help the readers to understand, connect and reflect better in an easier

way. The things they carried is successful majorly because it is composed of

these important considerations, and once the readers pick up the book, they

will never forget what have happened and how touching they were.