War From a True Perspective

             This is a response to the short stories by Tim O'Brien. The story “The Things They Carried” was a gut check to Lt. Cross. Everyone carried the essentials and what they thought were their essentials. The essentials were guns, MREs, canteens full of water, and other survival equipment. The personal essentials to hope cope with war and life in general, ranged from bibles to thumbs and marijuana. Jimmy Cross's essentials were letters and pictures of a girl he was in love with back home. In my opinion he was down right obsessed. I would not be the one to tell him he was wrong, if I had a pretty Martha to dream about in my chaotic world, I might be doing the same thing he did. His obsession over Martha he believed led to the killing of one his squad, Ted Lavender. Jimmy's negligence and his lack of leadership led to a slack squad. They were not properly secure when Ted had his head blown off. Cross spent that night crying in his foxhole, mainly from shame. The next morning he burned the essentials that killed Ted and became the squad leader he knew he needed to be.

           “On the Rainy River” comes back to civilization. This is when Tim the author has to face the fact that he has just been drafted for the Vietnam war. He starts it off heavy saying that he has never shared this story with anyone, which he is now about to share with his readers. He is working at a job he can't stomach because he can't go to Harvard. He can't go to Harvard, because Uncle Sam want's him. This whole time he is talking about how he could fight a war he believes in, for example overthrowing a Tyrant such as Hitler. Vietnam he can't find a just cause. It is all hazy to him; which side is good which side is bad. War's should be clear cut and are musts, not maybes! This whole time I'm thinking yeah plus you're scared of dying. He decides to flee to Canada and shacks up at this lodge in the middle of nowhere, close to the Canada border. The old man that runs the place takes him and put's Tim to work. A lot is spoken in the silence between the two. The old man tells him yes you have a big decision to make, abandon everyone you love, your hopes, and dreams, or fight in a war that violates your morals and ethics. Tim knows the decision is his and his alone, respecting the old man's silent, unbiased camaraderie; he becomes comfortable around a man in a way that his own parents would be jealous of. The story comes to a climax, where I find my assumption was wrong, when the old man takes Tim to a river that borders Canada. He takes Tim right to the edge, screaming out with the force of a calm breeze “Jump!” Tim has to finally face his decision, seeing as clear as day all the people's lives involved, both future and present. He sees dead presidents, relatives, even Ho Chih Minh. Then he breaks down and cries coming to the truth that he knew all along. He can't be brave. “I went to war.”

           The third and final story I read was “How to tell a True War Story”. This is by far my favorite story. The friendship and honor that is shown in these “true” war stories makes me proud to be human. O'Brien goes into depth repeatedly on how a story is not true unless you can see it happening. You have to really believe in a story to make it true. He tells of men cracking in the Jungle and ordering massive airstrikes for nothing. He talks about his squad and of a good soldier getting blown to bits by a mine. Then his best friend Rat Kiley writes the deceased's sister a letter telling how brave her brother was and they were best friends. Rat mentioned in the letter that he would take care of the sister with honor like his best bud would of wanted. “The dumb cooze never writes back!”, a war story does not give hope or show the brighter side of things a war story tells the truth. These are men we are talking about, they don't give up. When there is no hope and you see fucked up shit every day, peeling your dead friends carcass off of trees and the guy next to you just says yep he's dead. That makes me proud to be human.

The Things They Carried