Conflict
"...cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam..." (Kerry) |
In The Things They Carried, the soldiers act very similar to the soldiers described in the letter to the left. Besides noting the general destruction the platoon caused throughout the book, there is a specific encounter with a baby buffalo and an emotional soldier: "Rat took careful aim and shot off an ear. It wasn't to kill; it was to hurt. He put the rifle muzzle up against the mouth and shot the mouth away...He shot randomly, almost casually, quick little spurts in the belly and butt." (O'Brien 75) |
Similarily to this letter, the soldiers in this novel wished they could just forget all the horrible trageties they encountered in Vietnam. The majority of the book was about how the soldiers delt with their memories and the message within them.
|
"We wish that a merciful God could wipe away our own memories of that service as
easily as this administration has wiped away their memories of us. But all that they have done and all that they can do by this denial is to make more clear than ever our own determination to undertake one last mission -- to search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbaric war, to pacify our own hearts, to conquer the hate and fear that have driven this country these last ten years and more." (Kerry) |
"Then there were almost 200 men in barracks -- almost. Towards the end of the war there weren't. But we stayed in there for four months...this picture was made in August of 1944. And this is my prison number down
at the bottom there. And the abbreviations there stand for...That's POW camp number one. And that is located in Barth, Germany." (Learning the rules of the POW camp) |
In contrast to the below video, the soldiers in The Things They Carried were never held in a POW camp. They never really talked about prison camps either. To this plantoon, their own environment and thoughts were of more immediate importance than other soldier's fates.
|
In comparison to this veteran's experiences, the novel's soldiers were extremely wastful and ignorant of Vietnam's dangers: "Purely for comfort, they would through away rations, blow thier Claymores and grenades, no matter, because by nightfall the resupply choppers would arrive with more of the same..."(O'Brien 15) |
"There was -- the food was still scarce. We got -- the diet consisted mostly of black bread and potatoes... And the barley with grub worms about the size...it was white and about like this. And we'd scoop around and -- ah, meat with the barley. And you'd go and dispose of it. Then we'd still eat the barley. You can't afford to throw it out." (Learning the rules of the POW camp)
|
Fig 2 (The Vietnam War in picture 01)
The accuracy of a novel to the age it represents is important because the timeframe can greatly influence the people, conflicts, and themes of the book. So experiences that are genuine and true to the time make a novel more realistic and contribute to an enjoyable, interesting story.