The Things They CarriedO’Brien goes into a detailed description of all the things the soldiers carried. Some things included the tangible objects with physical weight such as their weapons and memorable items from home. Meanwhile, the other things they carried were the mental and emotional weight such as guilt and fear.
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LoveO'Brien tells the story of his conversation with Lieutenant Jimmy Cross about their experiences in the war and his encounter with his love, Martha, many years after the war.
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SpinO’Brien explains that “war wasn’t all terror and violence” (30). He recalls several typical, less-gruesome occurrences from the war and tells them in fragmented stories.
“On occasions the war was like a Ping-Pong ball. You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance” (31). |
On the Rainy River
In this chapter, O’Brien discloses his experience with the drafting process into the Vietnam War, a story he claims to have never told anyone before. He was drafted on June 17, 1968 as a 21-year old graduate from Macalester College. O’Brien hated the war for its lack of purpose and uncertainties. That summer, he worked in an Armour meat packing plant and was assigned to remove blood clots from necks of dead pigs. His emotions made him feel paralyzed and he felt extremely sorry for himself, up to the point of seriously contemplating the thought of escaping to Canada. Later that summer, he drove north and eventually reaches Rainy River, Minnesota, a destination just before the border of Canada. He resides with at the Tip Top Lodge for six days where he meets his the “hero of [his] life,” Elroy Berdahl (45). Elroy provided him food, shelter, and company throughout his stay and even though most of the time they spent together was in silence, O’Brien knew Elroy understood the difficult situation he was enduring. On O’Brien’s last day, he went fishing with Elroy and they eventually reach the Canadian waters. O’Brien expresses an outburst of emotion as his internal conflict rapidly grows, but later finally decides to go to war because of his embarrassment not to.
“It was a moral split. I couldn’t make up my mind. I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile. I was afraid of walking away from my own life, my friends and my family, my whole history, everything that mattered to me” (42).
“It was a moral split. I couldn’t make up my mind. I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile. I was afraid of walking away from my own life, my friends and my family, my whole history, everything that mattered to me” (42).
EnemiesO’Brien shares an incident between Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk in which Jensen violently fights Strunk because Strunk stole his jackknife. Afterwards, Jensen begins to feel fear and guilt as he feels that Strunk may want to get even with him, eventually causing him to break his own nose.
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FriendsO’Brien continues Jensen and Strunk’s story and how they learned to become friends and trust each other. They decided that if one ever experiences excruciating misery, the other would find a way to end it. Later in the war, Strunk’s leg gets blown off and when Jensen did not kill him, he is relieved to find out he did not survive anyways.
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How To Tell a True War Story
O’Brien gives his definition of a true war story by comparing it to one of his own stories about Bob “Rat” Kiley and Curt Lemon. Lemon died while playing with a smoke grenade with Rat and walks into the sunlight. O’Brien expresses that “A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue” (65). Telling war stories and distinguishing what happens versus what seemed to happen often becomes very difficult, therefore “a true war story cannot be believed” because “it’s a question of credibility” (68). He later tells another story that Mitchell Sanders share. Sanders recalls a time when a troop goes into the mountains on a listening post operation and after several days, they hear eerie noises, echoes, and music. When the troop loses their minds and orders air strikes to burn and shoot down everything, they still hear the noises the next morning. So later, they head back to the base camp and when reporting back to their colonel on what happened, none of them can answer anything. The next morning Sanders confesses to O’Brien that parts of his story was made up and shares that the moral of the story is “that quiet.” O’Brien goes back to Lemon’s story and says that he actually died because he stepped into a rigged mortar ground. A true war story can be distinguished by the questions asked about it and how it makes the stomach believe. O’Brien concludes that whenever he tells a story, he must make up some of its parts in order to give the story more truth give its meaning justice.
The DentistO’Brien recalls the story about Curt Lemon’s incident with the dentist. Due to Lemon’s previous unpleasant experiences, he faints during an appointment with an army dentist. Afterwards to shrug off his embarrassment, he meets with the dentist once again to have one of his teeth pulled out.
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Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong
O’Brien recalls a story Rat Kiley (who’s known for his exaggerated and overrated stories) told about a young woman, Mary Anne Bell. She was Mark Fossie’s (a young medic) girlfriend and arrived at their camp carried in by a helicopter with a shipment of supplies. Mary Anne quickly adapts to the way of life in Vietnam and in the war. After some time, she becomes content with staying and argues with Fossie about going back home. She often goes out at night and doesn’t show up again until the morning. One night, Fossie learns she has been out on an ambush and after their confrontation the next morning, reached an understanding that they are officially engaged and begin wedding plans. It is clear however, that the two have not concluded their disagreements and after a while she disappears for three weeks. At her return, some men see her go into the Special Forces hut and Fossie waits out for her until midnight. He goes into the hut and sees candles burning and hears tribal music. He also sees Mary Anne wearing a necklace made of human tongues. However she insists to Fossie that she isn’t doing anything wrong and it is Fossie himself who doesn’t truly understand Vietnam. Kiley discloses he never found out what happened to Mary Anne because she walks off into the mountains and never comes back.
StockingsO’Brien tells Henry Dobbins’ story about how he always wrapped his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck for good luck, even after she dumped him.
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ChurchO’Brien recalls a time when their platoon came across an abandoned pagoda with two monks. The monks treated them all with great respect as they provided them with food and water. Kiowa and Dobbins even considers being religious, but later decides that all they can do is act kindly towards the monks.
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The Man I KilledO’Brien goes into a vividly painted description of the appearance of the man whom he killed with a grenade in My Khe. He also makes assumptions of who the man was and who he could have been. O’Brien remembers the image of the body well as he repeats that “his jaw was in his throat. His one eye way shut and the other was a star-shaped hole” (120). Kiowa tries to make him feel better and urges him to move on because events like these are inevitable in war.
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AmbushO’Brien shares that when his daughter Kathleen asked if he’s ever killed anyone, he denied it. However, he’d like for there to be a time when he can tell her the truth. He recounts the night in which his platoon moved into an ambush site in My Khe. Later, he sees a young man wearing an ammunition belt and due to his shock, terror, and mind consumed with killing, he sets of the grenade and kills the man even before O’Brien himself processes the events that just occurred.
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StyleO’Brien remembers a time when a fourteen year old girl’s home was burned down and she just danced around her destroyed home and dead family. Later that night, Azar mocks the girl’s dancing and Dobbins threatens to dump him in a deep well unless he “dance[s] right” (130).
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Speaking of CourageAfter the war, Norman Bowker returns to his hometown Iowa and as he drives around the lake, realizes he feels lost with nowhere to go. He thinks about the medals he has earned in Vietnam to please his father and also how he could have received the Silver Star. He remembers during the war when the banks of the Song Tra Bong overflowed, the nearby sewage field began to thicken and bubble up. Kiowa sinks into the muck; however, Bowker was unable to save him so he lets him go in order to save himself.
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Notes
O’Brien notes that “Speaking of Courage” was written at the request of Norman Bowker who hanged himself three years after the story was written. O’Brien begins writing and after many revisions and deliberations about the extent of its authenticity, finally decides to share the real story of the sewage field and the death of Kiowa. He also wants to make it clear that Bowker was not responsible for Kiowa’s death or lose the Silver Star for valor for these parts of the story were his own.
In the Field |
Good Form |
The next morning, the platoon of eighteen soldiers searches for Kiowa’s body in the mud of the sewage field. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross leads the way and throughout the whole search, blames himself for leading his soldiers into a dangerous and eventual deadly field. Later, Cross meets another young soldier who also blames himself for Kiowa’s death. The platoon eventually finds Kiowa’s body in between a layer of mud and takes a great deal of effort to pull him out.
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O’Brien explains the difference between the forms of stories he tells. He says he did not really kill the man in the village of My Khe; but witnessed his death, and the guilt he felt was powerful enough.
“I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth” (171). |
Field TripTwenty years after the war, O’Brien takes a trip to Vietnam with his daughter, Kathleen, to revisit Kiowa’s death site. As O’Brien and Kathleen (only ten years old then), tour through Vietnam, she has a difficult time understanding the situation of the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, O’Brien also has difficulty recognizing the familiarity of the places he had been to as a soldier. Afterwards, O’Brien goes a swim in the river where Kiowa died and leaves Kiowa’s moccasins. Later Kathleen asks about an old Vietnamese farmer who she thought was mad at O’Brien, but O’Brien shares that “All that's finished” (179).
“This little field, I thought, had swallowed so much. My best friend. My pride. My belief in myself as a man of some small dignity and courage. Still, it was hard to find any real emotion. It simply wasn't there” (176). |
The Ghost Soldiers
O’Brien remembers that he was shot twice. The first time, he was treated by Rat Kiley in a calm, skillful, and courageous way. After he recovers, Kiley was replaced by Bobby Jorgenson. When O’Brien was shot the second time, O’Brien recalls vividly how painfully and poorly he was treated by Jorgenson because Jorgenson was incompetent of treating shock. As a result, O’Brien committed himself to getting revenge on Jorgenson. Mitchell Sanders however urges him to leave Jorgenson alone and Jorgenson even apologizes for his mistakes. O’Brien gets Azar to join him on his plans to scare Jorgenson as he is on a lookout duty during the night time. When Jorgenson realizes it is O’Brien hiding in the night making noises, setting off flares, and making sandbags move, the two men reconcile and call it even.
“I’d turned mean inside. Even a little cruel at times. For all my education, all my fine liberal values, I now felt a deep coldness inside me, something dark and beyond reason” (190-91).
“I’d turned mean inside. Even a little cruel at times. For all my education, all my fine liberal values, I now felt a deep coldness inside me, something dark and beyond reason” (190-91).
Night Life
Mitchell Sanders tells O’Brien the story of how Rat Kiley gets sent to Japan due to his injury. When the platoon was notified of a possible enemy attack, the men only moved during the night time. Sanders recalls how during these two weeks, everyone acted tense but especially, Rat Kiley. Kiley goes into a state of paranoia about dead beings and death itself. After a while, he completely loses it and shoots himself on the foot.
The Lives of the Dead
O’Brien remembers his fourth day in the war when Lieutenant Cross ordered an airstrike to burn down a village as the platoon watches. The men walk around the destroyed village and Dave Jensen shakes the hand of a dead old man, later followed by the other soldiers. However, O’Brien could not bring himself to shake the man’s hand for it reminded him of the first dead body he has encountered. Back in the spring of 1956, he recalls his first date with his first love: nine-year old Linda. Linda wore a red cap every day and was constantly made fun of by her classmates. One day, Nick Veenhof (a boy in their class) pulled off her cap revealing Linda’s nearly bald head. O’Brien later shares that Linda had a brain tumor and died a few months later. He attends Linda’s funeral and sees her body, unable to understand his emotions. Later he shares his fascination with dreaming because in these dreams, he can imagine Linda back to life. O’Brien connects this concept back to the war as the soldiers used different methods to cope with death and keep the dead alive.
“The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness” (218). |