Is Social Obligation In The Things They Carry By Tim O Brien

Social obligation is societal pressure, which may change the way a person may act, skewing what could have happened if this forced-upon pressure was nonexistent. Everyone goes through a time in their life where they must decide based on the way society would want them to decide rather than on what they believe. Written by Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carry portrays a situation in which social obligation roams through the mind of O’Brien. He is stuck in a position in which society inclines him to participate in a war which he did not believe in. While hiding out on the Canadian border, O’Brien must choose whether he will travel to Vietnam and become a soldier or flee the United States and never look back. Through moments like this, O’Brien

This decision stemmed from the military draft, which occurred during the month of June. Thinking the war in Vietnam was a war in which “certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (O’Brien 38), his first instinct was to leave the United States and avoid the draft all together. On the other hand, if he were to go to war, he would be fighting a war of which he hated. Canada became his safe-haven for escaping the draft. O’Brien stayed at the Tip Top Lodge on the border of Canada and Minnesota, contemplating whether to leave his old life behind or be forced into war. Sitting on the river between Minnesota and Canada, O’Brien almost jumped out of the boat to swim to his destination, but he could not foresee himself doing this. Paranoid, he almost believed there was an audience watching over his every move, judging him as time went on. He could not jump overboard with everyone watching him. Moreover, he was afraid of the consequences which would come out of his decision. Fearing the worst for himself in both situations, he began to believe his family and the country would exile him if he did not go to war; a war of which he did not believe the cause for. In the end, he knew he would regret his decision if he would have fled to Canada, much like Johnny Cash felt regret for how he lived his life. Throughout a song entitled Hurt, Johnny Cash spoke of these regrets. Two

Hearing of the hardships of war is one thing, but experiencing them is completely different. He learned this by simply going through the war and experiencing them for himself. Nevertheless, unless people experience these hardships first-hand, like O’Brien, nobody truly knows what the war is like. O’Brien felt obligated to pursue a writing style in which everybody could feel as if they were a part of the war. Describing detailed occurrences of the war is what people originally thought O’Brien was writing about; until he wrote a chapter called Good Form. Throughout this chapter, O’Brien spoke of these detailed occurrences as made up. O’Brien wants “you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth” (O’Brien 171). Social obligation, in this form, stems from what O’Brien believes to be socially correct. Stories in this novel might not necessarily be factually true, but they are true to him, for it is what he felt. Telling people about the story-truth stories makes them feel as if they were in the war with O’Brien, allowing for people to receive a new outlook as to what occurs during and after a war. Even if people did not know most of these stories are true to him and not factually true, O’Brien still felt obligated to write this chapter to explain why he created the