“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it.” (p. 72).
They carry memories. They carry ghosts. They carry a great deal of psychological baggage. “They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.” (p. 8). Additionally, they carried many physical objects, some required, others desired, and some superstitious and comfort items. There are also instances of their carrying each other, sometimes alive and often injured or dead.
We’ve all heard that war is hell, and Tim O’Brien uses apt description to drive the point home. Being forced to trust colleagues with their lives is a complex and sometimes insurmountable challenge for many who served in VietNam. Few understood why they were fighting. The men who traditionally go to war are often teenagers and still developing in many ways. Learning to be an adult in the backwoods of VietNam was terrifying. Fear prevailed: “I feared losing the respect of my parents. I feared the law. I feared ridicule and censure.” (p. 45).
The anecdotes highlight how deeply affected and changed the men were after their war experiences. O’Brien illustrates PTSD and other conditions through the characters in the segments of the stories used in this book. Some of the descriptions are gruesome, yet he writes in a way that makes the reader sympathize with troubled and sometimes misguided people.
Interviews with the author indicate that some of the stories are more factual than others. However, he discloses many times that much of the power is in the storytelling itself. “I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” (p. 191).
In this modern classic, we are reminded many times through carefully crafted tales that stories keep culture alive.
