Character
In The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, one of the things the soldiers carried was war stories. About every chapter (or short story) is a story. Whether or not that story was true, however, was not very distinctive, both to the reader, and to the characters of the book. O'Brien told these stories both by quoting the soldiers of his platoon who had originally explained the story, along with using his own commentary in his writing. The story would be told in the past, and then suddenly come to the present (not the present of when O'Brien was writing the book but the present of when the soldiers were telling the story) often to show the disbelief of the different soldiers.
Ron Ridenhour, an American soldier from the Vietnam war, wrote a letter describing a story he had heard about "Charlie Company 1/20," a platoon of American soldiers, taking out a whole entire village of civilians. He admitted "After hearing this account I couldn't quite accept it. Somehow I just couldn't believe that not only had so many American men participated in such an act of barbarism, but that there officers had ordered it" (Ridenhour). Ridenhour could not believe what he had heard. This terrible story was too horrific for him to actually believe by only hearing this from a few soldiers. Soon he heard the same story from a few others, confirming the original stories.
Gary Linderer says in his article about a war story, West of the Ashua, "...great stories. But some of them have been substantiated and have been proven true."(Linderer). This sentence taken from Linderer's article indirectly states that the war story had to be proven. Not only are the extreme stories of Vietnam disbelieved by soldiers, but common everyday people as well.
Ridenhour's experience and Linderer's statement relates to the characters of The Things They Carried. The characters of this book hear and tell unbelievable war stories which many cannot believe. The disbelief of the soldiers towards these stories show how the Vietnam War really was. It shows that it was a life-changing danger that many Americans had to endure, and truly shows the history many men went through for our country. It shows that something so unbelievable can be true.
Ron Ridenhour, an American soldier from the Vietnam war, wrote a letter describing a story he had heard about "Charlie Company 1/20," a platoon of American soldiers, taking out a whole entire village of civilians. He admitted "After hearing this account I couldn't quite accept it. Somehow I just couldn't believe that not only had so many American men participated in such an act of barbarism, but that there officers had ordered it" (Ridenhour). Ridenhour could not believe what he had heard. This terrible story was too horrific for him to actually believe by only hearing this from a few soldiers. Soon he heard the same story from a few others, confirming the original stories.
Gary Linderer says in his article about a war story, West of the Ashua, "...great stories. But some of them have been substantiated and have been proven true."(Linderer). This sentence taken from Linderer's article indirectly states that the war story had to be proven. Not only are the extreme stories of Vietnam disbelieved by soldiers, but common everyday people as well.
Ridenhour's experience and Linderer's statement relates to the characters of The Things They Carried. The characters of this book hear and tell unbelievable war stories which many cannot believe. The disbelief of the soldiers towards these stories show how the Vietnam War really was. It shows that it was a life-changing danger that many Americans had to endure, and truly shows the history many men went through for our country. It shows that something so unbelievable can be true.