Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The Things They Carried "The Lives of the Dead"

In the chapter "The Lives of the Dead" O'Brien explains that stories can bring the dead back to life through the act of remembering. 

“They’re all dead. But in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world.”

This quote explains how the dead can be with us if we remember them and keep them in our hearts just like how O'Brian keeps his fallen friends in his heart and writes about them so he can remember his memories with them and keep them alive in his mind for longer. 

The Things They Carried "Night Life" pg 208-212

In the chapter "Night life" Tim explains the things each soldier does to remove the tensions they have that built up on them in the war and the stress that causes them to go crazy and doubt their rolls in the  army.

"the phrase everyone used: the night life. A language trick. It made things seem tolerable. How’s the Nam treating you? . . . . Hey, one big party, just living the night life.”

The Things They Carried "The Ghost Soldiers" pg 180-207


In the chapter "The Ghost Soldiers" Tim talks about how he gets shot twice and Bob Jorgenson botches up the patch job when he got shot in the butt and Tim gets very bitter about it. He then gets transferred to a new facility and soon Jorgenson joins him. 

“They were still my buddies, at least on one level, but once you leave the boonies, the whole comrade business gets turned around. You become a civilian. You forfeit membership in the family, the blood fraternity, and no matter how hard you try, you can’t pretend to be part of it.”

This quote explains how Tim feels like he got kicked out of his military family once he was transferred to a different part of the war. 

The Things They Carry "Field Trip" pg 173-179

In the chapter "Field Trip" O'Brien and his daughter travel to Vietnam and visit the site of Kiowa's death. O'Brien and 10-year-old Kathleen visit the tourist spots, which she enjoys, but it is clear to him that she does not understand the war that had happened 20 years earlier.

"Like coming over here.  Some dumb thing happens a long time ago and you can't ever forget it."

The flashback of Kiowas death haunts Tim slightly so when him and his daughter visit vietnam he gets nervous and has memories pour into him of the time of the war. His daughter is very naive about this and doesn't understand what happened back then. 

The Things They Carried "Good Form" pg 171-172

In the chapter "Good Form" O’Brien talks about the difference between real truth and story truth and explains the structure of his book. 

"Daddy, tell the truth," Kathleen can say, "did you ever kill anybody?" And I can say, honestly, "Of course not." 
Or I can say, honestly, "Yes."

The Things They Carried "In the Field" pg 155-172

In the Chapter "In the Field" The platoon arrives at a field and has to sleep the night in the field however after they realize its the towns toilet they don't find their sleeping spot so desirable. One of the soldiers dies in the night and ends up slowly sinking into the feces in the middle of the night despite one of the soldiers trying to pull him out. 

"Like Jimmy Cross, the boy was explaining things to an absent judge.  It wasn't to defend himself.  The boy recognized his own guilt and wanted only to lay out the full causes."

Tim doesn't accept kiowas death so he trys to blame himself and think of every logical reason its his fault.

The Things They Carried "Notes" pg 149-154

In the chapter "Notes" O’Brien says that “Speaking of Courage” was written at the request of Norman Bowker who, three years after the story was written, hanged himself in the YMCA. O’Brien says that in 1975, right before Saigon finally collapsed, he received a seventeen-page, handwritten letter from Bowker saying that he couldn’t find a meaningful use for his life after the war.

 "There was no suicide note, no message of any kind. "Norman was a quiet boy," his mother wrote, "and I don't suppose he wanted to bother anybody."
Now, a decade after his death, I'm hoping that "Speaking of Courage" makes good on Norman Bowker's silence."