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The Things They Carried.....

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you know they always said I'd be

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happy to be back home after the war but it's awfully boring just hanging around [Camouflage t-shirt talking]

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like this fortunately I've been killing time by reading The Things They Carried

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a 1990 short story collection by Tim O'Brien our author Tim O'Brien was born

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in Austin in 1946 no not Austin, Texas the hipster capital of the southeast but

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Austin Minnesota the spam capital of the US for real they even have a spam Museum [A tin of Spam appears]

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in 1968 while at Macalester College O'Brien was drafted into the United

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States Army and sent to Vietnam he stayed in Vietnam until 1970 serving in

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the same division that was involved in the horrendous milay massacre an

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unprovoked attack in which American soldiers massacred hundreds of innocent [Innocent vietnamese civillians appear]

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civilians upon completing his tour of duty O'Brien went to graduate school at

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Harvard and got an internship at the Washington Post which was one of those

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old tiny newspaper things from an active war zone to a coffee break room talk

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about a jump in workplace safety standards

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O'Brien began his writing career in earnest in 1973 with the publication of [Tim writing in an office]

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if I die in a combat zone box me up and ship me home

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a memoir which documents his tour in Vietnam and also easily wins our

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semiannual way too wordy of a title award although O'Brien would write some

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fiction over the years like the novel's going after cacciato and the nuclear age [O'Brien's novels appear]

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it wasn't until 1990 that he released his next major book The Things They

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Carried the things they carried isn't exactly an easy book to summarize

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technically speaking it's a collection of short stories each chapter is its own

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thing you could pick up any one of them and you'd have a [Person picks up The Things They Carried book]

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a satisfying story from a beginning middle and end they're set in distinct time periods

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both during O'Brien's tour in Vietnam and after it and they feature different

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main characters each time around so O'Brien remains the narrator the

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whole time despite the differences however each story also features the [US Soldiers in line]

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same set of characters similar themes and even reference to same event sure

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sounds novel ish right and we're not done yet the book is also semi

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autobiographical it takes influence from its author's life there's a character

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named O'Brien who just so happens to be a writer [O'Brien in army gear walking through jungle]

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O'Brien even mentions his novel going after cacciato which he wrote in real

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life the book also purposely messes with our heads with O'Brien explicitly

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stating at several points that he's been lying to us throughout the book

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The book follows the men of O'Brien squad Alpha Company first

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lieutenant Jimmy cross, rat Kylie, Kiowa Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bakker, Ted

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lavender the whole gang actually scratch that lavender dies almost immediately in [Lavendar falls to the floor]

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the opening story O'Brien tells us exactly what the title of the novel means on

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one hand he's referring to the physical things they carried by the soldiers like

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medicine weaponry or even bags of M&Ms but the title also refers to the [Soldier wounded in a trench]

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metaphorical things being carried by the men like guilt fear and indigestion one

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big moment is when O'Brien kills a Vietnamese soldier assumedly his first

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of the war in shock O'Brien tries to deduce the dead guy's life story

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deciding that he was a former scholar a secret anti-communist and the host of a

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surprisingly popular YouTube channel about miniature trains, O'Brien later

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reveals that this incident was totally untrue he never killed anyone but will

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discuss that issue more in a bit another big moment is the death of Kiowa a [Kiowa's headstone appears]

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Native American soldier and close friend of O'Brien although again we're left

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with the sense that O'Brien tales might be a bit tall if you catch my drift

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O'Brien admits that he's changed details of Kiowas death when telling the story [Person writing and scribbles out sentence]

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previously which naturally leads us to wonder if he's being entirely honest

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with us here to this end the final story the lives of the dead completely shifts

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gears focusing on O'Brien's childhood sweetheart Linda who tragically died at [Linda appears and falls to the ground]

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her youth in the story O'Brien explained that he's found

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way to keep Linda alive not by performing some bizarre magical ritual

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but by telling stories about her by sharing stories about Linda the same way

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that he shares stories about his former comrade O'Brien can keep them all alive

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and well inside his head he can ensure that their memories aren't forgotten

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so maybe O'Brien stories aren't 100 percent accurate but then again maybe

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they're not meant to be instead they're simply a way for O'Brien to hold on to [O'Brien thinking about his comrades]

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the many people he's lost along the way let's look at a few individual stories

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starting with how to tell a true war story the story begins with the best

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first line ever this is true as we've already discussed one of the major

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themes of the things they carried is truth and how much O'Brien is willing to [Women stretching in a field]

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bend it but here O'Brien is mostly concerned with what make a proper war

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story.....

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well it has to be filled with obscenity and evil not

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to sound like the narrator of a horror movie it also has to be totally [T-shirt discussing chapter of O'Brien's novel]

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depressing no good feels here and don't expect a war story to teach you any

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lessons if a war story teaches you anything it's that you shouldn't expect

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lessons from stories in other words a war story should be as hard as a [Tupac appears on stage]

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gangster rap album notice too how O'Brien defined war stories in terms of

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what they're not as we saw earlier a war story does not impart any moral lessons

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never moral.....

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but it also can't be believed....

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nor can it be fully understood and

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analyzed............and incomprehensible immoral unbelievable mess sounds of a frat party

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and what's a good war story in O'Brien's eyes well most importantly it [Soldiers fires a rifle]

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must capture the actual experience of being in war, rather than stretching

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the truth to make the subjects seem especially heroic brave or noble we also

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see a couple of examples of war stories to varying degrees of believability like

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when a group of soldiers unleash their entire arsenal after hearing Vietnamese [Army tent appears and shots fired]

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music in the middle of the night or when they randomly kill a baby water buffalo

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or when a soldier accidentally blows himself up with his own smoke grenade [Smoke grenade explodes and Jimmy Cross appears]

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none of those little stories are particularly meaty not a ton going on so

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why does O'Brian tell them well remember his criteria for a good war story good

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war stories are impossible to analyze these little tales meet the mark on

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that count they lack any sort of moral lesson can't say we learn anything from

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the murder of a water buffalo so check that sucker off the list and [Person ticks off item from good war story checklist]

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finally they're depressing an accidental death a spontaneous shootout and animal

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murder can't get more depressing than that also though it may be difficult for

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us to pinpoint the exact meaning of these stories it's this difficulty that

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makes them such good war stories in O'Brien's eyes to O'Brien war is chaotic [Soldiers fighting in a field]

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brutal and often feels meaningless which is why war stories must have the same

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qualities we learn this lesson another way when O'Brien tells us about his

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buddy, Rat Kiley who wrote his heart staggeringly beautiful letter to

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his sister of a fallen member of their crew and what happened does she write

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back planning a meeting for when rat returns to America? start a torrid love

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affair with him over World of Warcraft the answer is none of the above she did

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nothing didn't make a peep O'Brien compares this sitch to how older women

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come up to him after readings and ask him to talk about something else besides [Elderly woman approaches O'Brien]

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war not understanding how important it is for him to continue sharing stories

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of his lost friends like we discussed before it's his only way of keeping them

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alive in both instances we see how civilians can't understand what veterans

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have gone through even if they lost a family member in the

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war like the woman rat writes the letter to the outro is maybe the most

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interesting part of the story however [Outro chapter appears]

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O'Brien basically admits that he

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fabricates parts of his stories to get across the deeper truth he's trying to

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convey in his mind it's less important whether he nails the facts and figures [Facts and figures sign falls off wall]

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than whether he accurately conveys what it felt like to go through those

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experiences just check out this closing paragraph......

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some unusual things to compare

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with war right the dawn mountains love sounds more like a romantic drama

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than a war story but what O'Brien is actually saying is that his war [Woman throws glass of water into mans face]

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experiences are subjective they're open to interpretation and personal

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experience a war story simply shows the reader what it felt like to be there

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what it felt like to march into unknown Mountains filled with enemy soldiers and

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what it felt like to live in constant fear of tomorrow's battle so the marker [Soldier prone in a field reloads weapon]

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of a good war story isn't that it conveys some citation heavy deeply

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researched historical truth or packs in more explosions than a fast and furious

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movie instead a good war story should make you experience all the suffering

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and terror endured by soldiers every day while not forgetting the moments of

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triumph and camaraderie that equally define O'Brien's time on the war front [Children helping soldiers with boxes]

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next up let's check out speaking of courage in this chapter we hang out with

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Norman Bowker on the fourth of July after he returns to America instead of

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watching fireworks and downing hot dogs like he's at Coney Island, Bowker is

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driving in circles around a lake alone he feels like he can't talk to anyone [Bowker driving a car by a lake]

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since coming back to America even his dad

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in fact Bowker wishes his pops was here right now so he could tell him about how

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he almost earned a Silver Star for valor Alpha Company had been camping beside a

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river called song tra bong when the river overflowed

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but song tra bong isn't an ordinary river how do I put this lightly [Man pooping in a river]

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it's where the local villagers poop sorry that wasn't light at all

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some point Kiowa seems to get hit by something and begin sinking into the mud [Kiowa sinking into the mud]

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Bowker tries to free his buddy for a while but has little success so he runs

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turns around and never looks back leaving poor Kiowa to get stuck under

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the quicksand and die this story touches on the isolation felt by soldiers who [Bowker sinking in mud and soldier appears with head in his hands]

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return home from war... sure it's great to be able to go to work without having to

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dodge bullets but there seems to be a feeling of emptiness shared by these

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Vietnam vets upon their return to America nobody understands what war is

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really like they know about the bad stuff sure but they don't understand the

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feeling of camaraderie accomplishment and purpose that come along with all the

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suffering and if Bowker tried to share his experiences with normal folks they

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have no idea what he was talking about sort of like the old women who [Bowker discussing war with a waiter]

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approached O'Brien after book readings or their fallen comrades sister who Rat

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writes a letter to the other main idea of this story is right there in the

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title courage, Bowker seems to think that his lack of courage caused Kiowa to die

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even though there's no evidence to back up that notion like come on the guy was [Bowker running away and Kiowa sinking]

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being consumed by a pool of quick sand that was also poop

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there's no coming back from that but maybe this feeling that he's not

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courageous enough is exactly what prevents Bowker from sharing his war

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stories to his dad even though sharing his stories might be the exact thing

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that could help him but hey O'Brien just told us to not interpret morals from

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war stories so we'll follow his orders for now interestingly the next story

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notes is all about the process of writing this one how Bowker had described this [Person holding envelope to O'Brien]

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scene to O'Brien in a letter and how O'Brien had included it at first in his

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novel going after cacciato but O'Brien changed key details characters and

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events as his par for the course when writing a fictional account of a real

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story but that nonsense isn't good enough for Bowker he wanted his story with

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the muddy field Kiowa and hopefully Leonardo DiCaprio starring as himself in [Di Caprio as a soldier appears]

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the eventual film adaptation 10 years later

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O'Brien finally takes Bowker's advice and writes that story this story the one

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we're reading right now well a story about writing a story we just read [Man reading a book]

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O'Brien blowin minds like his name was David Blaine the final story we'll be

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looking at is called good form sounds more like a chapter in a grammar

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textbook than a war novel name aside this story's the M night Shyamalan twist

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to the entire book you ready for it everything you read so far is a lie...

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here's what's true O'Brien is indeed 43 a writer and a

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veteran of the Vietnam War everything else not so much [Facts on Tim O'Brien appear]

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to help us understand this concept O'Brien explains that there are two different

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types of truth there's happening truth which is the

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sort of truth that we normally think about the reality of a situation so they

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happening truth is the most recent date you went on would be things you did on it [Man and woman sitting at a table on a date]

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what movie you saw and what restaurant you went to and then there's story truth

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which is the way that something felt even if that feeling doesn't entirely

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match up with reality so the story truth of that date would be how it felt, maybe

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you were so in love that the burgers tasted like filet mignon and the diet

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Fanta like champagne it's at this point that O'Brien reveals that he never

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actually killed that Vietnamese soldier he was talking about but instead simply [Vietnamese soldier falls to the ground and O'Brien appears]

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saw someone else kill him, see the happening truth is that O'Brien saw a

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crazy amount of death in Vietnam so much that he still can't entirely understand

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what happened but the story truth is that O'Brien felt

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responsible for that death to some degree which is why he creates a

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fictional story in which he actually was responsible for one of those deaths by

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embellishing personal details about the Vietnamese soldier that he didn't

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actually know O'Brien is creating a story truth that he feels accurately [Soldiers aiming rifles in the bushes]

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reflects how it felt to be on the war front we should also think about what

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O'Brien means when he talks about form in literature form refers to the way in

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which something is written O'Brien explains that narratives are simply a

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method of distribution for him separate entirely from the things he's writing

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about that are known as his content for O'Brien the content is the emotional [Young boy soldier appears]

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aspects of war the stuff that's hard to define and convey think of narratives as

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pizza delivery boxes sure the box is important to a degree but it's not as

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important as the sweet sweet pizza on the inside the pizza in this case being

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O'Brien's war experiences so we might now better understand why O'Brien plays [O'Brien holds cards up to his face]

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so fast and loose with the fact it's the only way he can explain an

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experience that seems even now to be unexplainable now that you've learned

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all about the things they carried let's consider the nuggets of knowledge you'll [Man carrying nuggets]

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carry away from this lesson well maybe you should think about how Tim O'Brien's

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personal experience in the Vietnam War made him the perfect person to write

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about the conflict for the masses not that he keeps things conventional or

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anything The Things They Carried is a fascinating book that combines aspects

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of a short story collection novel and memoir interestingly the things they

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carried is quite ambiguous when it comes to war itself

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O'Brien argues that we shouldn't view his stories as moral lessons of any sort

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of course we can do a little interpretation while O'Brien clearly [Important information on O'Brien novel appears]

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feels a strong sense of camaraderie with his fellow soldiers he ultimately sees

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war as chaotic meaningless and well just lame...

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finally the things they carried shows us how hard of a time Vietnam vets had

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reintegrating with society a struggle likely shared by veterans of all stripes

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and not to mention us uniforms too after all I used to be worn by a five-star [T-shirt talking about vietnam war]

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general for patton sake now the best I have to hope for is to be bought by a

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hippie with minimal body odor not a good sign....

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