The Things They Carried

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1990

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Summary

Background

Story Summaries & Analyses

Stories 1-3

Stories 4-6

Stories 7-9

Stories 10-13

Stories 14-16

Stories 17-19

Stories 20-22

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Vocabulary

Essay Topics

Quiz

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Survivor’s Guilt

Survivor’s guilt is the psychological experience in which an individual feels guilt or distress after surviving a situation in which others did not. During the Vietnam War, this phenomenon was prevalent among soldiers who returned home while their comrades died in combat. Survivor’s guilt is not limited to wartime experiences and can also occur in various contexts where individuals survive traumatic events, such as accidents or natural disasters, and feel a profound sense of responsibility or remorse for being spared.

The experience of survivor’s guilt abounds in The Things They Carried. At both the beginning and end of the collection, Jimmy Cross blames himself for the deaths of men in his company. After Ted Lavender dies, the narrator reflects that “[Cross] hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead” (16). Then, much later, writing a letter to Kiowa’s father after Kiowa’s death, he thinks he would say it was “[m]y own fault” (162). Ironically, at the end of “In the Field,” the young soldier near Jimmy also blames himself for Kiowa’s death since he used a flashlight: “Like murder, the boy thought. The flashlight made it happen. Dumb and dangerous. And as a result his friend Kiowa was dead” (163). Norman likewise blames himself for Kiowa’s death after the war is over.

Jimmy thinks, “When a man died, there had to be blame” (169). Many people or entities could be blamed for death. For instance:

You could blame the war. You could blame the idiots who made the war. You could blame Kiowa for going to it. You could blame the rain. You could blame the river. You could blame the field, the mud, the climate. You could blame the enemy (169-70).

Yet despite all these possible sources of blame, Jimmy believes that small mistakes that seem preventable by the people who make them caused the untimely deaths. Since mistakes and errors of judgment are so common in war, the sense of responsibility for Kiowa’s death is spread across many different people.

The stories show how each character copes (or fails to cope) with the psychological distress, depression, and anxiety created by survivor’s guilt. Each individual struggles to reconcile their survival with the loss of others. The narratives themselves do not assign blame or offer redemption: They allow readers to access many different points of view for a single event and to see that real blame cannot land on any single individual. As Jimmy points out, many factors cause death in a war. These factors combine with immediate causes in complicated ways that make it difficult to assign blame to any one person. This in turn makes it difficult or impossible for some characters to find closure.

Talking as a Way of Processing Trauma

The author makes clear the importance of talking as a way to work through the traumas of war in stories such as “Love,” “The Man I Killed,” “Speaking of Courage,” and “Notes.” In “Love,” the narrator and Jimmy Cross do little more than drink coffee and gin, smoke cigarettes, and remember “some of the craziness that used to go on” (27). In “Speaking of Courage,” and “Notes,” Norman Bowker is incapable of sharing his experiences with anyone, and this inability leaves him in a state of mental paralysis.

Verbalizing traumatic experiences helps many characters make sense of their feelings and memories, facilitating at least partial emotional healing and strengthening their resilience. Since Bowker cannot do this, he is stuck. By not discussing his wartime experiences, Bowker cannot gain validation, support, or understanding from others who have had similar experiences. In this light, the seemingly simple act of sharing stories as Jimmy and the narrator do in “Love” takes on a larger and more meaningful dimension.

After Norman decides not to talk with the A&W cashier in “Speaking of Courage,” he continues to drive around the lake and ruminate about his experiences at war. He has conflicting and contradictory thoughts about the act of sharing, thinking for example, “[t]here was nothing to say. He could not talk about it and never would” (147). But then just a couple of paragraphs later, Bowker “wished he could’ve explained some of this” (147). The contradictory nature of his thoughts shows that sharing, for Bowker, is an internal struggle and not as easy or simple as it seems to be for Jimmy and the narrator in “Love.” By passing up the opportunity, Bowker does not get a chance to unravel the complex emotions of guilt, anger, and grief that resulted from the traumatic events he experienced.

One interesting counterpoint to this theme comes in the form of Elroy Berdahl, the old man the narrator meets in “On the Rainy River.” Elroy Berdahl remains largely quiet during the narrator’s stay at the lodge, and yet the narrator claims, “the man saved me. He offered exactly what I needed without questions, without any words at all” (46). This suggests that perhaps just as important as the need to talk is the need for an attentive listener. Bowker fails to find such a listener in “Speaking of Courage,” which is perhaps one of the reasons he feels so paralyzed.

Factual and Emotional Truth

The Things They Carried often blurs the line between factual/historical and emotional or fictional truth. When crafting fictional narratives about war or other traumatic historical events, authors must navigate a delicate balance between factual accuracy and emotional truth. Factual truth refers to historical accuracy, ensuring events, timelines, and contexts align with recorded history while emotional truth refers to the subjective experiences, feelings, and psychological impacts these events had on those involved, which may transcend mere facts. O’Brien often weaves together these elements to create stories that resonate authentically even if they diverge somewhat from true events. While adhering to factual details lends credibility to the narrative, capturing emotional truth is equally vital for portraying the human experience realistically.

The narrator offers many different thoughts on the nature of truth throughout The Things They Carried. As Mitchell Sanders tells the story about the soldiers who heard music playing in the hills in “How to Tell a True War Story,” he pauses and tells the narrator that he won’t believe the next part: “‘You won’t. And you know why?’ He gave me a long, tired smile. ‘Because it happened. Because every word is absolutely dead-on true’” (70). This corresponds with the narrator’s assessment that “[i]n many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical” (68). That is, what both Mitchell Sanders and the narrator are saying is that the truths of war can sometimes seem so outlandish and farfetched, that if a war story seems to make sense, then it must be false. On the other hand, if a story seems too strange, obscene, or impossible to believe, then it might be true.

This is a statement not just about storytelling and truth, but about war as well. The true nature of war, the narrator suggests, often stretches beyond the imagination of someone who has not experienced it themselves. For this reason, O’Brien intertwines factual and emotional truths to offer insights into the impact war has on the individuals who experience it in a way that translates to those who have not.