Unreliable Narrator In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

In “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien shifts the stereotypical assumptions the audience would make about the narrator by implementing various post-modern devices and ideas within the novel. He does this to challenge the linear and austere view of war literature, as well as veterans that many readers are aclimatized to. The postmodern literature of “The Things They Carried” denounces stereotypes by using unique structures and rare writing devices. The novel instills the post-modern value of no universal truth within the narrator to conduct this. O’Brien implements the device of an unreliable narrator to confront the reader’s prejudgement of relationship to text, the greater part of novels hold. He allows the audience to gain a greater understanding

It does not follow “normal” English literature conventions, directly addressing the audience along with unreliable and manipulative narration are characteristics of the post modern literature structure. In the novel, the narrator directly tells the reader his views on telling a “True War Story”. The reader is able to piece together the unique experiences of the veteran that impact his opinions. Any prejudgements made of him being a veteran and exclusively telling harsh facts of war are contradicted by displaying his unexpectedly brave statements about war stories and truth within them. “You can tell a true war story by the questions you ask. Somebody tells a story, let's say, and afterward you ask, "Is it true?" and if the answer matters, you've got your answer.” - (O’Brien, 1990, P. 79) The author utilises a unique and fresh brand of storytelling that transforms events and creates a truth more spiritual than factual (Vernon, 2003). The use of directly addressing the audience to share views that are critical to the narrator is a foreign device in common literature, highlighting the post-modernism of the text. “If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.” - (O’Brien, 1990, P. 65) This nature allows a complex insight into the narrator as a veteran and how the war impacted his idea of truth and storytelling, further knocking any pre-conceived notions that may have been present in the reader of war veterans. The idea that the stories being told aren’t factually true is a shocking statement to those who haven’t been through a