The nature of war is excruciatingly difficult to understand, being both disturbingly simplistic in its raw violence and unbearably complicated in the multitude of lives that it consumes and the intricate emotional responses that people build toward it. The Vietnam War is one of the best – or, to be more accurate, worst – examples of the described concept, having ruined the lives of thousands of people and leaving disturbing aftermath of confusion and community trauma. In his collection of stories about the Vietnam War, “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien examines the complex relationships between the personal perceptions of the people entangled in it and the nature of the Vietnam War, creating a vignette of snippets of life as they are told through the lens of soldiers. The titular story, “The Things They Carried” addresses the themes of alienation and perception as the key phenomena shaped by the Vietnam War within American society by emphasizing the uncompromising attitudes of the protagonist, which cause a rise in alienation as experienced by the lead character, Norman, and the subsequent change in perception.
The increase in alienation becomes apparent in the novel from the very moment when Norman. The leading character of the story enters the scene. Depicting his return to now peaceful American society, the narrative paints Norman as tremendously damaged by the war to the point where he is incapable of adjusting to the reality of everyday life (Mahini et al. 1284). Thus, the process of alienation begins, being incited not by the harshness and the lack of understanding within the community, but by the war itself. In fact, the very name “Norman” becomes an ironic reflection of how the concept of normal is twisted by war.
The increasing emotional alienation that Normal experiences after returning home also becomes evident after considering his interactions with his family members closer. Specifically, his perception of reality defined by the challenges of war becomes unsuitable for managing relationships in a peaceful setting: “He came up grinning, filthy but alive.” (O’Brien 8). Having seen affected by the war and, thus, developing emotional numbness, Norman loses a significant part of his humanity, which distances him from the rest of the community.
Similarly, the issue of perceptions is rendered in the story masterfully. By considering the twisted perspective that Norman develops and internalizes after witnessing the horrors of war, the author explains that war distorts an individual’s perception of normalcy, twisting it and either making an individual unsuitable for living in a community or, at the very least, scarring an individual for life (Field 19). The idea of war becoming the destructive power that crushes people’s perception of reality and the norm is portrayed in a very manner in soldiers depicting and viewing themselves: “As an RTO, Mitchell Sanders carried the PRC-25 radio, a killer, 26 pounds with its battery” (O’Brien 4). Thus, the author shows the change in Norman’s perceptions and his ability to process his emotions and the other’s responses.
Remarkably, the shift in perception does not go unnoticed by Norman himself as he realizes that some of his newly developed ideas about humanity and ethics could be met with concern, at best, and disdain, at worst. For instance, the author describes quite vividly Norman’s unwillingness to share his Vietnam experiences with his girlfriend, whom he quite naturally expects to be terrified of the choices that he made: “Henry Dobbins asked what the moral was. Moral? You know. Moral” (O’Brien 9). Therefore, the shift in the lead character’s perception of normality is not set in stone; instead, it remains shifting and lingering between moral bankruptcy and being grounded in reality (Aqeeli 21). As a result, the lead character remains in perpetual limbo, failing to embrace reality while also unwilling to part with it. As a result, the perception of the lad’s character shifts, sometimes showing the signs of improvement, while displaying complete detachment from real-life interactions other times (Young). The specified dual perspective is reflected perfectly in the following lines: “They carried the land itself—Vietnam, the place, the soil — a powdery orange-red dust that covered their boots and fatigues and faces” (O’Brien 10). Thus, the perception of others and the grasp on reality that the lading character has are quite far from the objective observations. However, Norman tragically remains unaware of the unnatural change that has occurred to him.
Therefore, “The Things That They Carried” represent a peculiar representation of how the concepts of normalcy and social interactions are destroyed by war, causing people to develop the trauma that will impair their ability to communicate e with other and explore the depth pf the human emotion. Despite the seemingly casual narration, the short story has a resounding voice and conveys its message clearly and unambiguously.
By being exposed to the injustice and horrors of war, the leading character of “The Things They Carried” suffers a heart-wrenching experience of disillusionment, which results in his further alienation from the rest of the American community, shaping his perception of reality. By portraying the chaotic nature of war and the gradual change in the soldiers’ perception of the people against whom they fight, the novel emphasizes the problem of the ambiguous morality of war propaganda. As a result, the protagonist of “The Things They Carried,” as well as his fellow soldiers, recognize the futility of war and the pointlessness of the fight, changing their perspective drastically.
References
Aqeeli, Ammar A. “Tim O’Brien’s Representation of the Subjugated Other’s Voice against War in The Things They Carried.” Ars Aeterna, vol. 12, no. 2, 2020, pp. 20-33.
Field, Jenna Campbell. “The Soldierly Code: War Trauma and Coping in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.” Scientia et Humanitas, vol.10, 2020, pp. 17-28.
Mahini, Ramtin Noor-Tehrani Noor, et al. “Tim O’Brien’s” Bad” Vietnam War: The Things They Carried & Its Historical Perspective.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 8, no. 10, 2018, pp. 1283-1293.
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. LessonBank, 2012. Web.
Young, John. The Textual “Truth” behind Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. 2017. Web.