Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried
War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead.” (Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried)
Ah, war stories . . . tales of heroism, bravery, and friendship forged in the heat of combat; a sweet homecoming won by a hair’s breath; and an uplifting moral. If these are the ingredients you want in a war story, check out your latest Hollywood war flick. The war stories you’re about to read are much less morally satisfying, and so much more fulfilling. True war stories are not about war. So tells us Tim O’Brien, a master in the art of war stories. What they are about is life, love, family, loss, grief, and …show more content…
“On the Rainy River” is O’Brien’s true confession of how he got drafted. The year is 1968 and Tim is a successful college student, on his way to Harvard graduate school, politically and morally opposed to the Vietnam War. Yet, he is also a small-town boy raised to be patriotic and dutiful, worried about the embarrassment he’d bring upon himself and his family if he dodged the draft. And so O’Brien takes us on his harrowing escape to the wilderness of Minnesota, right up to the border with Canada, where he tries to cross, wills himself to do it, does it, only (of course, we know the outcome) to cross back for all the wrong reasons. The most uncanny story in the book is “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.” It’s a tale of a soldier who brings his Ohio sweetheart out to the jungle to keep him company. Without giving too much away, let’s just say she arrives in her cream blouse and pink skirt, and leaves . . . but wait, she doesn’t leave. What happens to Mary Anne is a chilling tale of the extremes of yourself war takes you to, and sometimes
Ah, war stories . . . tales of heroism, bravery, and friendship forged in the heat of combat; a sweet homecoming won by a hair’s breath; and an uplifting moral. If these are the ingredients you want in a war story, check out your latest Hollywood war flick. The war stories you’re about to read are much less morally satisfying, and so much more fulfilling. True war stories are not about war. So tells us Tim O’Brien, a master in the art of war stories. What they are about is life, love, family, loss, grief, and …show more content…
“On the Rainy River” is O’Brien’s true confession of how he got drafted. The year is 1968 and Tim is a successful college student, on his way to Harvard graduate school, politically and morally opposed to the Vietnam War. Yet, he is also a small-town boy raised to be patriotic and dutiful, worried about the embarrassment he’d bring upon himself and his family if he dodged the draft. And so O’Brien takes us on his harrowing escape to the wilderness of Minnesota, right up to the border with Canada, where he tries to cross, wills himself to do it, does it, only (of course, we know the outcome) to cross back for all the wrong reasons. The most uncanny story in the book is “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.” It’s a tale of a soldier who brings his Ohio sweetheart out to the jungle to keep him company. Without giving too much away, let’s just say she arrives in her cream blouse and pink skirt, and leaves . . . but wait, she doesn’t leave. What happens to Mary Anne is a chilling tale of the extremes of yourself war takes you to, and sometimes