Essay/Term paper: Tim o'brien's the things they carried eating them away

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Miscellaneous

For young people, the Vietnam War is a thing of the past and

they can only learn about it from second hand sources. In Tim

O'brien's The Things They Carried, it becomes very apparent that

the Vietnam conflict has proved to be one that many of the

participants have not been able move away from, while getting on

with their lives. O²brien shows that the conflict takes on a

parasitic form that eats away on its victims for the rest of

their lives.

A parasite is defined as an organism that grows, feeds, and is

sheltered on or in a different organism while harming its host.

The war in this case takes the place of the organism, and the

host becomes the soldiers. There are several examples of the

parasitic nature of war through out the book. In one particular

section, Tim O'Brien returns to Vietnam with his daughter. Twenty

years had gone by, but it seems as though all of his thoughts are

geared back to the time he had spent in the jungle so long

before. The two of them travel all over the country, but before

their departure, he returns to the field where he feels he lost

everything. On this list he includes his honor, his best friend,

and all faith in himself. For O'Brien, evidence of the parasite

is not solely in his return Vietnam, but rather a constant

personal preoccupation that seems to flow through the collection

of stories. O'Brien shows how the memories of the war take on a

parasitic form, and uses himself as an example.

In the chapter ³Speaking of Courage², O'Brien introduces a

character by the name of Norman Bowker. In the story Norman finds

him self home after serving his time in Vietnam. Even though he

is back in his home town, things do not seem the same to him. The

was seems to have put a new spin on his life. Most of the story

he spends driving in circles while thinking about the war and his

lack of place in his old society. The war becomes his whole life,

and he feels as though he is to far distant from the town people

for them to understand. The reader then finds out that Bowker

commits suicide because the parasitic affect of his memories

became to much for him to handle.

There is another section in the book where a man named Jimmy

Cross comes to visit O'Brien after the war. They talk of

experiences and hardships, then it becomes apparent Cross has

also been unable to totally move on with his life. There are

still secrets, and they still weigh heavy on his mind even

during his his every day civilian life. O'Brien never complains

about these problems, but it is clear the they bother him a great

deal.

There are countless themes in this book, but one of the major

ones is the after effects the war had and still has on the men

that were there. It is clear from O'Brien's writing on Cross,

Bowker, and himself is more than just story telling. In using

these people he attempts to show what the war has done to the

population of soldiers that participated in the conflict.