O'Brien touches upon countless themes in The Things They Carried: the guilt of killing a man, embarrassment being a motivating force, the awe and horror of war, etc. He comments upon what makes a story true or not, what makes a story a story at all, and all the different ways to tell and retell a story. As I continue reading I'm more and more impressed and blown away by how he connects the different threads and characters, and that's what I want to discuss: this is not a collection of short stories. I highly doubt he wrote them as individual stories. This book is one story, meant to be read cover to cover, all the way through. To accomplish this continuity, O'Brien constantly blends stories and refers to events in other chapters (often times future chapters) while discussing what's happening.
He starts this web-story telling from the very beginning. On page two, as he's listing the literal things soldiers carry, he mentions... "Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head..." and then continues on. It's relatively non chalant, but brutal and...there. He mentions Lavender's death again on page 3, then on page 6, and page 7, then we finally get the recounting of his death pages later. All the while, we just heard blunt hints and statements.
But we're not done with Lavender. We never really are, no one ever really is, regardless if he's alive or not. In a separate story, Spin, O'Brien is recounting some of the...relatively nicer moments of fighting a war. He mentions Lavender. If you tried to read Spin by itself, the reference wouldn't make any sense. The emotional impact of things build and build with the more you know. The more you know of the situation and the characters, the harder it hits you. That's why these aren't short stories, more of a way for O'Brien to organize his thoughts and experiences. It's incredible.
I really like your view on the relationship between the short stories. It’s interesting that you mention that reading one of the short stories without any context or reading a previous story would not make any sense for the reader. Each story delves deeper into the overall experience of the war as well as greater development of the characters. I liked the analogy you created; that all these stories are a web that interconnects and weaves between plots.
ReplyDeleteI like that each story allows the reader to gain more insight on a certain plot point or a character. You brought up an excellent example about learning more about Lavender’s death. It’s like O’Brien is re-experiencing everything. As we continue reading more of The Things They Carried, each story carries a heavier emotional weight and leaves an imprint on our minds. It’s so engaging how O’Brien captures his reader’s interest and his approach to storytelling is creative and innovative.