Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis

Tim O’Brien introduces this boundary between materialism and reality through the significance of “storytelling” in his work “The Things They Carried.” Often, conflicting the readers between whether deciding the novel is either fiction or non-fiction. He narrates the novel in such a way in which we live through the sentimental war experiences ourselves. Tim O’Brien presents himself twice, once as an author and once as a narrator who captures the story and illustrates the events for us. He persuades his story through the different perspectives, often from his own memories and emotions. He sets this tone of emotional stress, physical despair, and grievous loss. The other relevant characters within the story pertain to distinctive qualities; however,

they each share the same common identity. Tim O’Brien develops these characters through their own tragic experiences, through their loved ones, and finally through their heroism. Tim O’Brien denies the need to relive the traumatic incidents within the war, however speaks of the realism of the Vietnam War itself. The experiences are penetrated through the author’s imagination, however Tim O’Brien as narrates majority of the novel. “How To Tell a True War Story” serves as a prime example of how storytelling within the novel serves as a contradiction to the audience, we the readers questions the genre and realism of the narrative. “How To Tell a True War Story” starts off with O’Brien narrating the story of both Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley. After Lemon’s death, Rat writes a letter to his sister explaining what happened. The first three words presented within the chapter are “This is true.” Nonetheless, as the story proceeds O’Brien begins capture the truth vs. non-truthful events. “You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. If you don’t care for obscenity, you don’t care for the truth; if you don’t care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty” (69). After Lemon’s sister never seems to reply back to Rat, Rat reacts negatively calling her a “dumb cooze.” This reaction illustrates how often horrific experiences can often trigger our minds and bodies to reciprocate anger in uncivil ways.

Tim 0’Brien captures this realistic image behind a war experience, behind all of the superficial heroism or liberty we expect to see, we see immaturity, grief, and death. Often as emotional beings, we ourselves do not want to accept truth, especially if its often an event we wouldn’t want to relive and see. So we tell ourselves fictional aspects of the experience to help our imagination and minds accept this idea of positive enlightenment, however this majority of the time leads us to break down even more. We shape our own concept of the truth, and deny the factual concurrent issues, which we see Tim O’Brien do in the novel. We often set ourselves up for contradiction, which in the long run can lead to even more distress. Tim O’Brien similarly, takes the initiative to transform Curt’s death into something beautiful. He illustrates Lemon’s death story into a love story. At the end of the chapter Tim O’Brien speaks of how none of the story happened, he denies it ever being real. “And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It’s about sunlight. It’s about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It’s

about love and memory. It’s about sorrow. It’s about sisters who never write back and people who never listen” (85). The events that occurred after Curt’s death, such as Rat’s violence towards the baby buffalo and his letter to Curt’s sister symbolize his irrational way of dealing with the deep sorrows of the war. In fact, Tim O’Brien addresses this new idea of the loving the war for other circumstances, such the understanding the beauty of the land or falling in love with the culture and the combat, in comparison to how Mary Anne transformed after her exposure to the war. Along with the depressing, brotherly, and peaceful moments of war, Tim O’Brien also sets up the factual aspects of the war. In order, for us readers to acknowledge the mechanic images of the violence and put us into perspective. In the beginning few chapters, he lists many of the weapons and materials that each of the soldiers carry. Jim Cross and his photograph and pebble to reminiscence his undying love for Martha, Kiowa and his New Testament, Henry Dobbins and his girlfriend’s pantyhose, Rat and his morphine. All these physical items each symbolize an emotional attachment and background behind who these soldiers truly are. In the chapter “Spin” we the readers start to see more from Tim O’Brien as a writer, and as a writer he carries stories. These stories must be told from his perspective, although many facts of the war do not need to be said, he retells them anyway. In a way, Tim O’Brien navigates the importance of the past to his stories. He understands that the past intertwines with how he feels during the present.

At the very end of Spin, he mentions his daughter Kathleen and how she prefers to hear more pleasant joyful stories, rather then his obsession for the war. Yet, often something that strikes us emotional is definitely something that will always be remembered. The need for storytelling in a way keeps Tim O’Brien alive, he mentions “But the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget. You take your material where you find it, which is in your life, at the intersection of past and present” (34). He begins to speak of the relevance of stories and why he chooses to retell them; Kathleen symbolizes his emotional attachment to the war and storytelling. “Forty-three years old, and the war occurred half a life-time ago, and yet the remembering makes it now. And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are. “ (38). To Tim, the significance of storytelling establishes from the idea of

shaping the truth between fiction. He interlaces facts from the war, his own emotions, the character’s dreadful experiences, their loved ones, and materialistic objects that help the characters survive not only the war they battle in Vietnam, however, the constant war they battle within themselves. The boundary between this world of reality and materialism serves as a frustration the soldiers carry with them at home and the experiences that challenged them during and from war.