Things They Carried Reflection

Well…where to begin. First of all, the author, Jim Neilson, is arguing in his article that Tim O’Brien’s novel is ignorant of the truth of the war. The author feels that O’Brien wants readers to sympathize with himself and rarely acknowledges the struggles faced by the Vietnamese. Neilson states that, “In postmodern fashion, The Things They Carried focuses on literary and epistemological preoccupations at the expense both of a Vietnamese perspective and of any broader historical/political understanding.” I disagree with Neilson; I feel that O’Brien accomplished his intent in his novel to make readers understand the true feelings of a soldier in the experiences he goes through. O’Brien feels that he is a coward for not following his heart and fighting a war without knowing the purpose of doing so. He shows his lack of faith in the necessity of the war by questioning, “Was it a civil war? A war of national liberation or simple aggression? Who started it, and when, and why? What really happened to the USS Maddox on that dark night in the Gulf of Tonkin? Was Ho Chi Minh a Communist stooge, or a nationalist savior, or both, or neither? What about the Geneva accords? What about SEATO and the Cold War? What about dominoes?” (44). I think that similar to Art Spiegalman’s writing in Maus II, O’Brien only wanted to convey the feelings he knew of, which in O’Brien’s case is that of the sheer terror and horror faced by the soldiers. He did not want to stereotype by rationalizing American or Vietnamese intents in fighting.

As for Neilson’s claim that O’Brien’s novel is not credible because of his two sided psychological state toward the war, I feel that because people cannot be inherently good or evil things cannot be viewed simply as being black or white. It’s only human to look and see things differently at different times. It’s kind of like when something bad happens to someone and they go through a vicious cycle of being angry, sad, and then being happy again only to repeat the cycle again.