The suggested statement indicates that The Things They Carried by O’Brien broadcasts the horrors of the Vietnam War to the reader and allows one to understand the psychological aspects of that impact. It is difficult to disagree with this, given the author’s foundation in creating the work. In particular, the narrative blurs any lines between fiction and an objective account of the facts and allows one to view O’Brien’s invented stories by placing them in the context of the war. In turn, this approach deepens the reader into the narrative, engaging and guiding to a greater extent. One concrete example of the reader’s heightened immersion into the horrors of war is a quote that O’Brien used to demonstrate the essence of warfare. Specifically, the writer told of an American who had been killed and whose comrades had removed all the ammunition and tobacco to use further, at which point the still-living soldiers were reflecting on their guilt. Lt. Cross blamed himself for Lavender’s death because “he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her” (O’Brien, 1994, p. 4). Hidden in this quote are two horrifying wartime characteristics at once, namely the applied inhumanity with which a soldier’s corpse is viewed as a storehouse of valuable materials and the compulsion to constantly choose between what the individual loves and duty to the homeland.
O’Brien also describes the technical problems associated with the constant transportation of combat equipment, including the 28-pounder, which puts pressure on the shoulders and back (p. 5). In other words, in addition to metaphysical stress, soldiers were regularly subjected to extreme physical strain affecting their condition. Particularly contrasting was the phrase about soldiers’ experiences during the war when O’Brien devoted one short sentence to a statement about their resilience as opposed to a lengthy description of the panic, anxiety, and despair with which soldiers were occasionally confronted (p. 10). For someone who has never been involved in a war, O’Brien’s account perfectly captures the atmosphere of severe mental and physical hardship and stress and conveys the idea that war is a total horror. For this reason, I agree with the above statement and find The Things They Carried a narrative that demonstrates the atrocities of war to an excellent degree.
Reference
O’Brien, T. (1994). The Things They Carried [PDF document].