What is Real?

by Julia Cocchiaro

          O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” has brought about much debate over whether the stories are real or not, what he attempts to teach readers, as well as his motives behind writing the collection and doing so in the way he did. 

Most critics agree that although O’Brien insists the stories are completely made up, there is some truth behind them in regards to himself.  In her article, critic Catherine Calloway states that there are many similarities between the narrator and the author.  For starters they share the same name and a history of serving in the Vietnam War.  We also see that in the beginning of the collection, O’Brien dedicates the book to some specific individuals he served with him and these names we later see in the stories as characters.  Not only does his choice in characters cause us to question whether the accounts are real or not but also the author’s own statements about his work.  Another critic, Lynn Wharton, states that in an interview with O’Brien he stated that “this is a true story” and “everything is made up” (1).  If even the author admits that although everything is made up, yet it is all true then how is the reader supposed to decipher what facts are real and which are not? 

Many critics believe that forcing us to ask such questions was not O’Brien’s only goal or motive for writing this collection.  Calloway argues that his main purpose was to inform readers what a war story is not, however, in the process of doing so, he wrote one.  According to her, he attempts to show us that any “truths” in war stories are not actually true.  What we are lead to believe about war, the violence, is not all true.  It is mostly about memorializing the people who were killed, the memories and the struggles with grief.  O’Brien states that this is a true war story and the only way to tell it properly is to keep telling stories over and over.  Calloway suggests that this is why he wrote the collection and why he made it seem like a true account; to show us a true war story without using these “truths” that are actually not as true as we believe. 

Wharton’s understanding of the story is very different from Calloway’s.  According to her the purpose of O’Brien’s writing was to show readers his own vision of himself as well as America’s collective struggle with the moral and ethical aspects of war.  Wharton suggests that his purpose behind giving the narrator the same name as himself was so that he could portray to us what he actually thinks about himself.  The bigger argument she has however is about the American society.  She argues that although the stories do show O’Brien’s person struggles in war, they mostly show readers the challenge many American had of determining whether the act of war, particularly the Vietnam War, is ethical.  She believes he is arguing whether it is ethical and moral for Americans to fight simply because their country tells them they are required to, even if they know it is wrong.  She declares O’Brien shows us this because many of the characters simply do what they are told but are constantly questioning to themselves if they really should be doing them.  For example, she says we see this when one of the soldiers is given a thumb of a killed enemy and he does not know if it is right to accept it.  Also, when Lieutenant Jimmy Cross struggles with whether he should forget Martha, his love at home, and if his love for her is the reason one of his men got killed.  She suggests that these two examples show us how in situations of war, soldiers did not even know what was truly right and wrong. 

These arguments force us to ask many questions.  What is true in these stories? What was the author’s goal? However, I believe the bigger question is whether he simply wanted to tell a story that could be true for anyone; himself, Americans, or soldiers in the war? Or, if he is attempting to teach us something about the American ethics or his own?  As shown in the two critic’s arguments, we can only determine this based on O’Briens characters, and the way in which he creates his stories.

Works Cited

Calloway, Catherine. “How To Tell a War Story: Metafiction in The Things They Carried.”  Critique 36.4. 1995. EBSCOhost. Web. 5 May 2012.

Wharton, Lynn. “Tim O’Brien and American National Identity: A Vietnam Veteran’s Imagined Self In The Things They Carried.”  49^th Parellel: An Interdisciplinary Journal of North American Studies. (1999): Web. 5 May 1012.