Summary Of Field Trip By Tim O Brien

In the story “Field Trip” from The Things They Carry, author Tim O’Brien’s portrayal of Kathleen as a “reader proxy” (an ordinary, shallow character that the audience can project themselves onto) and her innocent tone highlight the divide that is seen between veterans and civilians; the lack of mutual understanding results in the widening of the divide between the two, making war an intangible, incomprehensible event that is often dismissed as unimportant. In “Field Trip”, O’Brien takes his ten year old daughter Kathleen to Vietnam as a birthday present. Kathleen seems unexcited about the trip and does not understand the meaning of this journey for her father. Similarly, she is oblivious to what the war was about, and does not understand

[because] the interpreter was showing magic tricks” (184).The audience is able to relate to Kathleen — a vast majority have likely not experienced the battlefield, and so are unmoved and confused by O’Brien’s attachment to the land and his dejected emotions. Additionally the contrast between Kathleen’s enjoyment of the magic tricks while her father is reminiscing his gruesome wartime experiences, highlights the general uncaring notion the war garners and the veterans’ experiences being seen as boring and not worth paying attention to. Like Kathleen, the readership is left with only shallow encouragements to offer such as, “I hope you’re having fun” as a way to encapsulate and comprehend the myriad of experiences they do not have

She tells him, “Listen, this is stupid” (186). Her inability to understand this symbolic action of respecting Kiowa reflects her innocence as well as her inconsideration due to her obliviousness to the fact that Vietnam and the field are strong triggers for a returning veteran, reminding him of the “vulgarity and horror”. The lack of understanding of the reader and Kathleen stems from the basic incomprehension of the experience of war. For Kathleen and the readers, the land does not hold any poignant memories, it just is a “place [that] sticks” (182). This is because, as O’Brien puts it, “the war was as remote to her [and the audience] as cavemen and dinosaurs” (183). The war is seen as something so remote, something untouchable, that is unable to affect the common man that it is often disregarded. Kathleen knows about her father’s role in the war, yet she seems confused and dismisses him as “weird” and then condemns him for holding onto about “some dumb thing [that] happen[ed] a long time ago”