Truth In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Truth
The main characters in The Things They Carried are soldiers, watching people die every day. To lessen their fear of death, they do not pay much respect to the dead and treat the corpses as if they are live people; they demonstrate that the soul lives on even when the body does not. One of the ways the soul lives is through stories. In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, the final chapter, “The Lives of the Dead”, is essential because it is a perfect conclusion. It ties together the soldiers’ view of mortality and death, two overarching themes, by explaining some of their questionable actions, and it incorporates the concept of “story truth”, offering more information as to why this story technique, used and discussed throughout

In “The Lives of the Dead”, O’Brien recalls a time when he had a “mental block”(215) against joining his comrades in shaking hands with the dead bodies. It was in the beginning of his service and he was not yet used to seeing corpses. It appears that the men made light of the situation by avoiding the “final confirmation”(228), because that is when it becomes real. This final confirmation is brought about every day because “war is just another name for death”(77). Although they watch, and sometimes enforce, death, they do not come face to face with it. It is the difference between shooting someone without seeing their face, and stabbing someone in the heart while looking them in the eye. This allows them to view death more lightheartedly than they would otherwise. For example, after Ted Lavender died, they laughed about how he died “on the way back from peeing”(12), of all things. This memory is discussed multiple times throughout the book, but this chapter tells the meaning behind it. All of these men seem to have this “mental block” against death. All of them see death; none of them want to accept

The concept of “story truth” or “happening truth” is constant throughout the book. Story truth is not necessarily what really happened, but it is the what is told to others to embellish a true story, whereas “happening truth” is what really happened. The “story truth” becomes just as true as happening truth when it is told in a story. In “The Lives of the Dead”, there is a recurrent theme of stories and the impact they have on reality. Stories create an “illusion of aliveness”(218). This theme of an “illusion of aliveness” is present throughout the book, such as when the soldiers shake hands with the dead. Perhaps this is why the soldiers, and later veterans, tell stories so often: so that they can alter memories to their liking. Many, if not all, of the soldiers have something that they wish they did or did not do while at war, such as Norman Bowker, who wished that he could have satisfied his father by winning the Silver Star. This would be an anecdote to the “heavy”(219) feelings and memories, discussed throughout the book, carried by all the