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Destruction In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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In the book “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien admits to killing only one man during his war career, and relays it in the chapter “The Man I Killed”. In this chapter, O’Brien surveys the mangled body of the Vietnamese man he has just murdered, and desperately attempts to humanize the dead man as a coping method for his guilt. The chapter embodies a unique, and extremely detailed repetitive writing style which serves as a symbol of O’Brien’s scrutiny over his irrevocable action. The chapter begins with an exceptionally detailed description of the Vietnamese soldier’s body, as O’Brien surveys his destruction. Yet, the paragraph seems to contain a certain positive connotation, mentioning the “butterfly on [the man’s] chin” (118) his “clean, …show more content…

Although he has no way of knowing anything about the man’s life, O’Brien attempts to humanize the soldier by creating a story for him, and memorializing it in order to place meaning on the man’s life. It is interesting to note that parts of O’Brien’s description of the soldier’s life reflect his own feelings. For example, while speaking about the man’s recruitment to the army, O’Brien tells, “…secretly…[the war] frightened him. He was not a fighter.” (119), and that “he could not picture himself doing…brave things. He hoped in his heart that he would never be tested”. This manifests the thoughts of O’Brien as, he too was fearful of going to war, and had no desire to fight, as well as preferred a classroom environment compared to a battlefield. In conclusion, the continuous repetition of the description of the soldier’s body represents the idea that this irrevocable action will forever be with O’Brien, and the minor details of the description serve to reveal different messages of the story. In the chapter “The Man I Killed” O’Brien struggles to understand the implications of his actions, as well as to cope with his guilt. Through the constant repetition and the vivid description O’Brien attempts to humanize the soldier, and assign meaning and purpose to the life of the man who suffered such an idle death. O’Brien writes a meaningful chapter

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O’Brien presents a story in which he kills an innocent Vietnamese man walking through the woods. He describes the guilt and remorse he feels for his actions. He references this story several times throughout the book. Around the third time he admits that the guy he specifically described was not real, and that in fact he never killed anyone in the war, but the fact that he witnessed so many deaths put him at fault. “I remember his face, which was not a pretty face because his jaw was in his throat, and I remember feeling the burden of responsibility and grief.

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Throughout Tim O'Brien's experience as an author, his contribution to the American voice consisted of his grandiose style of writing, using experiences from Vietnam and the Cold war to shape his stories. His contribution to the American voice is unique as he not only includes deep physical and psychological elements into his works, but also uses unorthodox methods to blur the lines between what really happened to the characters (and what happened to Tim O’Brien during his life). Tim O’Brien’s experiences in Vietnam shaped his unique writing style, while this particular style created deep description of the physical and psychological effects of war, while incorporating this from his own personal experience into his own works. Through Tim O’Brien’s

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O’Brien writes, “[t]hey carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried,” (7) conveying the feelings of guilt and remorse, which adds to the mental hardships of war and the effect it has on the soldiers. This can also be seen when Tim O’Brien is fixated on the fact that he just killed a man. It is as if time stops for him, he is overflowed with thoughts and shock, which triggers this sort of guilt and shame that he ultimately has to get over and move on because this is war. War has made soldiers unable to properly process anything because of the paranoid environment and quick rhythm of war. In another instance, O’Brien showcases the power of shame on life-changing decisions.

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Even after all these years, O’Brien is still unable to get the images of Vietnam out of him head, specifically of the man he killed. In the novel, he repeats the description of the man numerous times, almost to the point of excess, saying,“he was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole” (124).

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