Rhetorical Analysis of Tim O'Brien's "the Things They Carried"

What is the common conception of soldiers? They are strong, maybe silent, and tough. All of them are the same and come from the same type of background, where they were disciplined for the littlest things in order to prepare them for boot camp. In Tim O’Brien’s book “They Things They Carried”, the characters’ individual and unique backstories are presented in the midst of telling various “true” stories from the Vietnam War. The backstories are detailed and provide insight into the life and mindset of each soldier--what sets them apart from one another. The stories they tell are manipulated and contorted to fit who they are telling it to. The stories are not lies, just half-truths. War is trying on them all, and their personalities could be lost in the uniformity of the military, or in the aftermath when post-traumatic stress disorder or depression could develop. In the chapter titled “How to Tell a True War Story”, O’Brien uses repetition of personal pronouns, strong emotions, and the contrasting ideas of self versus the world in order to explain the loss of individuality and innocence during times of war.

O’Brien, as a soldier, struggled with his identity in previous chapters. However, in this chapter, he writes about how all the soldiers deal with this crisis through the use of the pronoun “you” twenty-three times within the selected passage, emphasizing the idea of self. This is particularly effective as soldiers “lose themselves”, whether it is due to the conformity of a military unit, the togetherness of a team, or the mental distress war has on a mind. The passage stresses not only for soldiers to recognize themselves and to not lose themselves, but also to understand they are alive and they are a part of the world: “All around you things are purely living, and you among them, and the aliveness makes you tremble” (81). In the previous sentence, “you” is used three times, to engage and address the reader personally.

Along with the pronoun “you”, O’Brien uses strong verbs to create an image of oneness with one another and the world. “You feel wonder and awe at the setting of the sun, and you are filled with a hard, aching love for how the world could be and always should be, but now is not” (82). Other strong feelings O’Brien writes in the passage include: “pleasure”, “aliveness”, “pure”, “tremble”, “intensely”, “awareness”, “want”, “admire”, “gape”, “astonishing”, “indifference”, “dead”, and “freshly”--all of which are related to the human person. To go along with the idea of retaining one’s personality, O’Brien uses these terms to connect a reader with their own feelings. Soldiers must put their personal emotions aside when in a larger unit because if the team is united--mind, body, and spirit--they can conquer anything, whereas if they are not, they could risk destruction. O’Brien, on the other hand, uses this piece to urge soldiers to hold onto their humanity. Using active words to describe happenings encourages the reader feel what O’Brien is feeling and get a sense of oneness with the world. “Any soldier will tell you… that proximity to death brings with it a corresponding proximity to life” (81). Despite there being so much death in the story, there is also so much life; even after death, their legacy lives on. The soldiers also learn that life is precious, and they should appreciate their life and the lives of others.

In contrast to the individual emotions of the soldiers, a non-physical picture is painted with descriptive words of nature. Words such as “trees”, “fluid”, “grass”, “soil”, “fox hole”, “river”, “mountains”, “morning”, “world”, and “sun” are used to describe an imagined scene. O’Brien relates the soldiers’ emotions and experiences to the world beyond. He creates an image of sereneness where the reader is looking out at a “wide river turning pinkish red, and at the mountains beyond” (82) and contemplating their love for “how the world could be and always should be, but now is not” (82). The soldiers need to focus on themselves, but also on the future--what the world could be because of their actions right then and there. They should love the world they live in because it has been relatively kind to them, but they should be infatuated with and desperate for what is to come.

Another idea that contrasts both the idea of self and the nature side of the world is war itself. O’Brien again uses descriptive words--“rocket”, “ambush”, “gunship”, “rounds”, “metal-fire”, “raid”, “artillery barrage”, “phosphorus”,