Literary Criticism 

Morals during Wartime- Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” explore themes of morality during the time of war. Morality changes during the time of war for both the soldiers and the civilians. During the time of war, civilians become more aggravated. They start to commit more crimes: assault and murder. Also during this time punishment increases. These punishments include increased fines, incarceration, and death. “Killing other humans becomes morally upright.” Murder, arguably the worst crime, becomes the norm. Everybody, everywhere, lives by new rules: Destroy the enemies. This creates the aggression and increased crimes seen throughout the book. Morals, during wartime, shift in the direction of the downfall of humanity.

Ethics during Wartime-  “The Things They Carried” explains the theme of ethics, particularly within the soldiers. The constant violence the soldiers worked through started to break them down. The only ethical code available was the precedent set by previous wars, extremely graphic wars. The code did not establish a system that determined what was good and what was bad. They constantly lived through a state of questioning. Was that the correct option? Was that illegal? The soldiers started to enjoy “destroying the enemies”. They were doing their duty, and they felt great honor in doing so. Ethics were blurred during the time of war and started to disappear completely. 

Truth- The constant debate amongst storytellers is if the event was happening-truth or story-truth. Happening truth is what actually happened. These events actually happened. Story-telling truth is the truth that is related to a person. People twist these truths and add details to make the reader feel as the storyteller did during these moments. The use of narratives are used to determine how the audience preserves the story world. The events are dependent upon which narrative they are presented from. Tim O’Brien presents narratives from both the American side and the Vietnam side. This shows that narratives present both sides as gruesome and graphic. 

Concealing the Narratives- Narratives extend far beyond how the audience is meant to perceive the story. Narratives are meant to show both internal and external forces. This metaphor shows that the author has the ability to express emotions and feelings felt in and out of the human body. The narrative uses tricks and “magic” to normalize violence. Soldiers during this era had to be extremely aggressive and violent. When retelling these stories, the narrative is crucial to hide the violence and death. Illusions and deception are also used in these stories because it allows the author to relive and relieve these emotional burdens, while they allow the reader to not take on these burdens as well. Sometimes authors, such as Tim O’Brien, will use false narratives to better their stories and to make them more enjoyable. 

Blurring Reality- “The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true,” Tim O’Brien. O’Brien focuses on his past in the Vietnam War. These books are extremely graphic and show the day-to-day challenges faced by soldiers. When writing these books, he follows a story line from events he recalls and from events made up that fit into the story. “Blurring the lines” of stories is what helps make a good story. In the case of brutal Vietnam stories, it helps make a story more enjoyable and less graphic. “Quitting for Reality.” Narrators do not always use reality to express a story. Often they use slightly twisted versions of the reality, “blurring the lines”, to express these stories in a more intriguing or less graphic way. 

Burden of Death- The Vietnam War was an especially gruesome war. When telling these stories, Tim O’Brien expresses the burden of deaths on these soldiers. In these stories, there are often times that dead people are resurrected. It later comes out that these are scenes of delirium and shows that the war is affecting soldiers' mental health. These soldiers have to carry the burden of death: Death of comrades or death of the people they have killed. In both cases, these heavily weigh on soldiers. “Faith burns. Trust Burns.” These soldiers start to physically break down, leading to everything they know being harmful to them. Many soldiers find that sharing their stories helps them heal. The truth is the most important part of their stories. 

Flashbacks- When O’Brien writes about his past stories, he uses flashbacks. These flashbacks help to establish emotions and explain his future actions. These flashbacks are used to gradually reveal the past which led to the emotional or physical outbreak. Tim O”Brien once recalled one of his former squadmates being blown up. Before using this flashback, he described one of his friends mutilating a cow. This flashback helps show why this breakdown happened. Often times the audience only gets certain narratives. These create pieces of the story and not the full story. Flashbacks can be used to help piece together the story to show the reality of the situation. 

Reality- Authors write from several different perspectives. Creating narratives of each character and event. Using these different angles and visions sets the reality of the situation. During war, one person may be going insane and breaking down physically and emotionally. Whereas another aspect of the story could be coming from a completely sane character. Using these different perspectives, the reality of the situation is revealed.