How Does Tim O Brien Use Story Telling In The Things They Carried

Each day we are faced with the opportunity to believe and tell many stories. when you were younger you were probably told stories about Saint Nick, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. As a kid, these stories serve a purpose to teach something and to give hope. As adults the stories ease the pain of a subject or to get us through a hard time. An example might be a mother that has lost a son in a tragic accident will never be told by the doctor that her son died in pain, but the doctor might say he died peacefully. Tim O'Brien uses storytelling in his book to teach lessons from the war, and to have us understand about the the baggage that he and his fellow men had to carry.

In the first chapter of The Things They Carried, O'Brien

He tells us "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" (O'Brien 38). Yet O'Brien uses stories to get his points across to younger readers,For a younger person today, it is possible that they may know the facts about the war and what the outcome was because of a history class,, but do they really know how the story ended? Do they understand how a soldier feels when their friend is shot? O'Brien wants to make this vividly clear. He wants to make them know what the war is like emotionally (O’Brien

Yet, all of the stories he tells seem so real. Each story, each person's history, has a deep impact on the reader and the way the reader feels about the character. If you look at Mark Fossie and Marry Anne it becomes quite clear. As Mark waited for Marry Anne's arrival, not in his wildest dreams would he have planned on her becoming part of the war. She learns to embrace life in Vietnam. She learns to use the weaponry and learns to take cover. By this example, it makes the reader realize how close each one of us are to becoming part of the war. (O’Brien 106).

One of the last stories told by O'Brien is about his return trip to Vietnam in 1990. It is true that O'Brien returned to Vietnam he did so to have a conference with American and Vietnamese writers in Hanoi (NY Times). Yet he did not go with Kathleen, his daughter who he does not have nor did he go to visit the site of Kiowa's death. So why write about? Again he is trying to make us feel the connection to the individual and to him. Even though the war was over it was not finished. The memories and the trauma still existed and were present each