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Truth In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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According to Roland Barthes “Literature is the question minus the answer. In The Things They Carried, a collection of short stories, by Tim O'Brien we are left to deal with the question of ‘What is the real truth?’ Throughout the story, we are introduced to multiple types of truth. They include physical truth, in which the story tells what the men are physically carrying. Consequently, it is also compared to emotional truth, what emotional baggage the men carry with them from place to place. Story truth is truth that is fictional, but convenient to telling the story. Lastly, happening truth is what actually happened in an event. The question of ‘What is the real truth?” is answered to an extent, as throughout the book we witness each type of …show more content…

For example, in the first chapter, The Things They Carried, O’Brien merges the lines between physical and emotional truth. Jimmy Cross is the lieutenant of a platoon and whenever something goes wrong, the lines between his emotional and physical truth are merged. Where everyone else is carrying physical items such as rations, cigarettes, and pocket knives, Jimmy Cross carries photographs of his girlfriend Martha, her love letters, and his emotional love for her instead. This is done in order to show that Jimmy Cross can be affected by both physical and emotional truth at any given time. To Jimmy Cross, he doesn’t realize that there is a distinction between the physical truth of everyone else and his emotional truth, until he causes Ted Lavender’s death. Nevertheless, this question of trying to answer which truth is the real truth leaves us with numerous questions, compared to answers, as it becomes difficult to fully understand what is happening in the story. This question affects the total understanding by having us realize that in addition to there being more than one truth in a story, a character can believe in multiple truths as well. Accordingly, this leads us to believe that there can be multiple truths that are regarded as

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