Alyssa Ramirez
Mrs. Hill
AP Language & Composition H
14 March 2023
Different Worlds
When soldiers are asked to kill for their country they have little to no room for the consideration of morality within their actions; but what road do they walk to ever give up such a human trait? The American novelist, Tim O'Brien, wrote many stories highlighting his experiences of the Vietnam War and touched on, not only the struggles of the war but also the path soldiers take that others fail to mention. O´Brien believed that ¨storytelling is the essential human activity. The harder the situation, the more essential it is¨ to tell (“Chicago Public Library”). One of his most well-known novels, The Things They Carried, is a collection of linked stories based
…show more content…
With fragmented narratives, a story can ¨hop back and forth through the timeline of events¨ and at times feel unconnected (“What Is a Fragmented Narrative?”). This may aid in an author's attempt to allude to a deeper meaning in a text. In O´Brien´s case, fragmented narratives further amplify his incorporation of both fiction and non-fiction in his novel. In The Things They Carried, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross had an abnormal obsession with a woman named Martha. Throughout the story, Cross can be seen having ¨difficulty keeping his attention on the war¨, as he always daydreams about outings with Martha (5 O´Brien). Even as Cross had been assigned a duty ensuring the safety of his subordinates' own life, he would ¨suddenly, without willing it¨ think about Martha¨ (6 O´Brien). With O´Brien´s narration of Cross´s actions and thoughts shifting from both reality and fiction, it displays the enormous mental toll a war may have on soldiers. As the only thing Cross is capable of doing is daydream, so that he can keep his mind off the actual insanity of the war. Not only that, but in The Things They Carried, O´Brien inserts his own experiences of the Vietnam war alongside the fictional situations. To him, fiction is sometimes more real than reality and this aids in his usage of fragmented narratives; further demonstrating traits of the postmodernism