Tim O'Brien and The Art of The True War Story

Tim O'Brien and the Art of the True War Story: "Night March" and "Speaking of Courage" Author(s):
John H. Timmerman Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 100-114 Published by: Hofstra University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/441935 . Accessed: 03/10/2013 21:05
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TimO'Brien oftheTrue and theArt March" and WarStory: "Night ofCourage" "Speaking
JOHN H. TIMMERMAN
is not simplyabout the rise and fall of nations Vietnamwar story (South Vietnam,NorthVietnam,Laos, China, Thailand, the United it is about the riseand fallof the dreams States,the SovietUnion). Rather, of individualsoldiers-their hopes riddled by disillusionment, theirfantasies brokenby shrapnel-edged and Writing theVietrealities.In his Fighting Don Rignalda observesthatWashington nam War, engaged in the war as a clinicaland statistical "We imposed a carpenteredreality on a commodity: at all, but merelya recent, country(South Vietnam) thatwasn'ta country createdabstraction runbya seriesofcorrupt diplomatically puppets.Oblivious, Americansbecame 'cartomaniacs'in Vietnam"(14). Having reduced the Washington-created enemyto ciphers,the cartomaniacsdid precisely the same thingto theAmericansoldier.In a warfought accordingto statistics,and where ciphersare thrown againstciphers,who is leftto tell the truewar story? Who entersthe livesand uncoversthe dreams,the dark seback on the cipher? crets,the fearsand the hopes thatbestowpersonality it is possible to engage the experience of war exclusively on Certainly and academic terms, to configure the experienceaccordingto stascholarly tistics and historical accounts.Every timehuman experienceis renderedas the human place in warbecomes more abstracted and more fact,however, In "We're AdjustedToo Well,"Tim O'Brien voiced his dismay simplistic. thatthe nation'shope foreverything to slide back into some vague stateof "normal"-or been fulfilled all too well.For hispart, being "adjusted"-has O'Brien says,"I wishwe were more troubled"(207). IfAmericansociety is no longer troubled,if it has exorciseda segmentof our historical past, it
The
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TIM O'BRIEN of our human nature.War stories has also occluded something mustevoke as opposed to giving a statistical the dreamsand livesof individualsoldiers, or historical of data. accounting This tellingraisesseveralaesthetic questions.Can one capturethe realof in the event a that reader in it? such the ity way imaginatively participates lifeevokesa greaterreality Is therea pointwherethe imaginative than the so thatthe readerunderstands factualaccounting, not onlywhathappened but also whyit happened and how it affected the soldier?Furthermore, as thewarrecedes into thepast,can thewriter an authentic preserve memory of it,freefromromanticidealism or bittercynicism? Or are we betteroff itslide,as twoofO'Brien's characters(the fathers ofPaul Berlinand letting NormanBowker)suggest? A gap inevitably castingof an event opens up betweenthe imaginary (the fictiveevent) and the factual details of that event (the historical forexample,combined Division, chronicle).That forcesoftheFirst Cavalry withCIDG soldiersto kill 753 NVA regularsnear Fire Base Jamie on December 6, 1969, is the historicalchronicle.What happened in the hearts and mindsof the soldierswho foughtthatbattleis not conveyedbyclinical data. To uncoverthatis the taskof fiction. This is precisely the taskthatTim O'Brien undertakes. The essentialdialectic of the war storylies in this interplay between as data and the the for of human O'Brien aims reality reality spirit. nothing less thanresolving thisdialecticintoan integrated whole,oftenbymeans of a metafictional and narrators discoursein whichhis characters engage in the dialectic themselves. Two notable examples are his companion short stories"NightMarch" and "Speaking of Courage," both of which pose a fundamental distinction betweenthe factofwhat"actually" happened and the reality the individual. experiencedby Examining these twoworksalso raises questions about how the true warstory can be told. Is the disparity betweenpersonal experienceand the of Or is itpossibleto achievesome intehistorical war irresolvable? facticity if and how? Such definethe complementary so, gration, questionsfurther and conflicting elementsof these twostories. After examiningthe stories, I willconsiderwhatin general constitutes for the truewar story therefore, Tim O'Brien. It first ightMarch"is O'Brien's mostwidely anthologizedstory. apin May 1975 under the title"Where Have You peared in Redbook and was revisedto become a chapterof Going Gone, CharmingBilly?" After in 1978. It stillstandsindependently, Cacciato but in Going Cacciato it is After
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Y LITERATURE TWENTIETHCENTUR wovenseamlessly into the rather wide-ranging plot of one man's imaginary walk from All the stories in war. Cacciato stemfromPaul Berlin's long away reflections while on observationpost. Past horrorsand present dreams (echoing the book's epigraph fromSassoon) buckle togetherat the momentof "observing." But at thatmoment,Paul Berlin'sactual goal, we are to livelong enough to escape to the real world.What constitold,is simply tutesthe real worldis the essentialissue. The internaltensionsof the war story "NightMarch" maybest be understoodbycomparingitto O'Brien's postwar story "SpeakingofCourage." Firstpublishedin the Summer1976 issue of Massachusetts Review and then in PrizeStories in 1978, "Speakingof Courage" fiand The O. Henry Awards The two Carried. nallybecame a partof O'Brien's 1990 workTheThings They storiesare connected in severalways.For example, the 1976 version of where Cacciato, "Speaking of Courage" repriseschapter 14 of GoingAfter Paul Berlin thinkshe could have won the Silver Star if he had rescued Frenchie Tucker. In "Speaking of Courage," Norman Bowker thinkshe could havewon the SilverStarifhe had rescued Kiowa. But neitherBerlin nor Bowkerrescued,and neitherwon. Like men on plasticponies at the and carousel,they hang suspended,bouncingup and downbetweenreality fantasy. More pointedly, both storiesaddress a conflict between the however, of war and the of life. In civilized Paul normal, March," reality reality "Night Berlintriesto denythe reality of thewar he is in so thathe can survive. He endures his war life by a daily pretending,a fantastic not unlike escape Cacciato's imaginary thathisprimary lies elsetripto Paris.He insists reality in Vietnamcalled "theWorld."The World where,in whatthe infantrymen is a stateof mind-an absence of fearand conflict, an idealized place that reallyexistsnowhere.For Cacciato the imaginary utopia is Paris; for the like Paul Berlin,it is simply the United States. averageinfantryman This displacementof reality on the unreality of the throughinsistence warbecomes necessary to survive. Each individualis forcedto supplyhis or her own reasons forpersonal actionsand the personal meaningsof those actionsas well.For example, TheThings first a young introduces Carried They Vietnamesesoldierin "Spin,"and then,nine chapterslater, in "The Man I Killed," the narratordetails killingthissoldier and creates a shorthypothetical forhim-a "past"used to escape the reality of his death. biography The next chapter,"Ambush," suggeststhat perhaps the man is not really dead after all. Finally, near the end of the book and afterthreemore variations of the event,the narrator'snine-year-old daughter beseeches him, The narratorre"'Daddy, tell the truth.... Did you ever kill anybody?"' flectsthathe "can say,honestly, 'Of course not."' But then again, he "can 102
TIM O'BRIEN There are too many say,honestly, 'yes"' (204). The tensionis unnerving. in writer work the "true"warstory? How then does the toward war. vagaries In an interview, O'Brien reflects on the dialecticbetweenreality and The as an of war novel. war contains an essential state the novel fantasy in orderto denythe horror. O'Brien observesthat elementof surreality In war,the rationalfaculty begins to diminish. . . and what takes The mind of the solover is surrealism, the lifeof the imagination. dier becomes part of the experience-the brain seems to flowout of your head, joining the elementsaround you on the battlefield. It's like stepping outside yourself.War is a surreal experience, therefore to render it seems quite naturaland proper fora writer some of itsaspectsin a surrealway. (qtd. in McCaffrey 135) as an example, O'Brien adds that Moreover, citingTheRedBadgeofCourage war seems it" (135). So soldiersdream; formless to the men "Every fighting and in order diminish the horror. because it to deny theypretend Precisely in of that human the midst war and unbelievable horror, captures reality O'Brien claimsthat"Cacciato is the mostrealistic I've The life written. thing is real precisely of theimagination is real"(142). The lifeof theimagination because it embracesthe experience,movingbeyondfactualdata. warstory-the story of a combatpartici"NightMarch"is an "interior" in From is couched involved the war. the the outset, pant immediately story in denials and pretending.Reality, afterall, lies in thatambiguous other place, the World.As the "NightMarch"platoon movesin "thedark,single ofnegationintensifies: as ifin an actualnightmare, thepattern "There file," was no talking now.No morejokes" (Cacciato186). At the same time,Paul Berlin'sdenial of thefactofwarintensifies: "He was pretending he was not in the war.And later,he pretended,itwould be morning, and therewould not be a war" (186). The negationsdevelop throughthe earlystagesof the oftenclosing offa paragraphof objectivedescriptionby the omnistory, scientnarrator, as ifeach stab at engagingthe factofwaris deflectedbyan act of will.The mind of Paul Berlinclutcheson the negatives:"There was not yeta moon" (187); "So he triednot to think"(187); "He would not be afraideveragain" (188). The reality ofwar thatPaul Berlinstruggles to avoid,however, willnot as disappear.O'Brien letsitslipinto thefirst paragraphalmostaccidentally, ifflitting thegatesofdenial erectedin Berlin'smind: momentarily through he had notwatchedBillyBoyWatkins on thefield die offright "Pretending of battle"(186). Historicalfactkeeps leakingthrough, even as the denials mount. It even comes as snatchesof a song: "Wherehave you gone, Billy
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TWENTIETHCENTURYLITERATURE thisis war; Boy,BillyBoy."Bitsand pieces of the grimfactkeep intruding: Watkins died. BillyBoy is necessaryin order for death, however, DenyingBillyBoy Watkins's Paul Berlinto denyhisownrelentless fear. Soldiersare supposed tobe brave, "He to keep the pose of bravery: afterall. And Paul Berlin triesmightily would laugh when the othersmadejokes about BillyBoy,and he would not be afraideveragain" (188). But like thedarkness, fearenvelopeshim."The Paul Berlinreflects, "wasnot to takeit personally" trick," (188). But such a is impossible. trick Paul Berlinwishesthatsome dayhe maybe courageousenough to laugh at death. Through laughterhe mightbe absolved of fear.It is not coincidental thattragicomedy has surfacedas a subgenrein warliterature. Tragia as mode sees the world as an evil place; the comedy literary essentially human responseto it is laughter, forlaughterholds evilin abeynecessary ance and demarcatesthe wholenessof the individualhuman. A good deof the genre arisesin Ken Kesey'stragicomic novel OneFlewover scription the Cuckoo's Nest wheretheembattled Randal Patrick who,inciMacMurphy, a prisoncamp duringtheKoreanWar, led an escape from exclaims, dentally, "Whenyou lose yourlaugh,you lose yourfooting"(65). A tragicomic scene in "NightMarch"offers reactionsto the contrasting of war.A "child-faced" soldier (Cacciato), smellingof Doublemint reality gum-that keen reminderof the World-creeps up to Paul Berlinand offershim a stickof gum. As Cacciato and Berlin relax and chew theirgum, Cacciato begins whistling He isn't even aware of his whistling. tunelessly. The whistling is contrastedto Paul's giggling. Whereas Berlin is painfully aware of his own giggling, Cacciato is obliviousto his whistling. While Berlin fights, and fails,to escape the presentfactof war,Cacciato seems to do so naturally. He seems to have escaped to his imaginary reality. The question of timearises.NeitherBerlin nor Cacciato has a watch. Cacciato says"Time goes faster when you don't knowthe time" (215) and remembers thatBilly owned twowatches.But Billy BoyWatkins Boyis dead. Even withtwowatcheshe doesn't knowthe time.The ironywrenchesthe twosoldiersinto a confrontation withthe factof BillyBoy'sdeath. This was no ordinary death.All along Paul Berlinhas been fighting his but BillyBoy actuallydied of fear:"A heartattack! You hear personal fear, A heartattackon thefieldof battle,isn'tthatwhatDoc said?" Doc saythat? feartheyfearedmosthad, in fact, (192). The very grippedand killedBilly Dozens of horrible BoyWatkins. waysto die, and he died of fear. SuddenlyPaul Berlin begins to giggle-suffocating, spasmodiclaughterthathas him helplessin the grass:
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TIM O'BRIEN He giggled.He couldn'tstop it,so he giggled,and he imagined it clearly. He imaginedthe medic's report.He imaginedBilly'ssurprise. He giggled, imaginingBilly'sfatheropening the telegram: SORRY TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR SON BILLY BOY WAS YESTERDAY SCARED TO DEATH IN ACTION IN THE REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM. Yes, he could imagineit clearly. He giggled.He rolled onto his bellyand pressedhis face in the wetgrassand giggled,he couldn't help it. (193) To survive his ownfearPaul Berlinbattlesitwithlaughter. But it is laughter on the vergeof hysteria; since nothingmakes any sense, all one can do is laugh. As he lies giggling on the grass,nowwatching the clouds pass over the the of time and the Paul Berlin now moon, marking passing nightmare, himself his father. in with As of imagines talking "Speaking Courage," the absentfather is one of the mostimportant in thisstory. characters He representsboth a confessorfigureand also an incarnationof personal and moral values in a war withoutapparent purpose or value. And now Paul Berlinfindsa wayto respondto thisfather: Giggling,lyingnow on his back, Paul Berlin saw the moon move. He could not stop.Was it the moon? Or the clouds moving, making the moon seem to move? Or the boy's round face, pressinghim, out the giggles."Itwasn'tso bad," he would tellhis father. "I forcing was a man. I saw it the first first day,thevery day at the war,I saw all of it fromthe start, I learned it,and it wasn'tso bad, and later on, lateron it got better, later on, once I learned the tricks, later on it wasn'tso bad." He couldn't stop. (194-95) The moon clouds up again. The columnmoveson. Cacciato-to thispoint seen visitant called "theboy"-hands Paul Berlina stick unnamed,a scarcely of BlackJackgum-'"the preciousstuff." And thenwe learn the boy'sname withhis ironicjest: "'You'll do fine,'Cacciato said. 'You will.You got a terrific sense of humor'" (195)--ironic in thatitwas fear, not humor, thatprovoked Berlin'suncontrolled giggling. The moral argumentthatthe horrors of war so threaten human sensithattheymustbe escaped byfantasy or foughtby laughter(both of bility whichBerlindoes withonlylimited reversed success) is precisely bytheconditionsofthepostwar back in theWorld,the ideal story. Havingnowarrived worldalways dreamed of duringthe war,the veterandiscoversthathe carries withhim the undeniable factof war.He cannot escape the memory. worldnowbecomes thefantasy; thepastwarhas become Oddly,thepresent the reality. The fantasy is engenderedbythe simplefactthatpeople in the world have chosen to deny the reality of the war; theydon't want to hear 105
TWENTIETHCENTURYLITERATURE about it. Least of all do theywant to hear about it fromthe returned vetwould make their notions of war which statistical abstracted, eran, altogether too real. Other thematicpatterns of "NightMarch" survive intactin "Speaking Paul Berlin.Like Paul Berlin, of Courage." Norman Bowkerwas originally he has struggled withcourage and cowardice.He too seeks a confessorfather intowhoseears he wantsto pour hisstory. Butin thiscarefully crafted and thereby to denyreality seems to block the telling, tale,all of civilization to NormanBowker. Such a story sortof telling.The nightmare of the requiresa different and the observation memories are now the tranpost circling replaced by of and the home town Bowker's around the endrive lake, quillity circling the of his Paul own life and mind. Berlin's descircularity capsulating weary to escape timein "NightMarch" is replaced byBowker'sunperate effort to tell timefromthe feel of the day-or night.Paul Berlinin cannyability factsharesNorman Bowker'spreternatural to "feel"the time.Howability of memoriesthatoccurs duringhis stint on obever,duringthe conflation servation from to 6 time itself seems a.m., post duty midnight suspended as the surrealimages glide in and out of his mind. Norman Bowkeris never separatedfromthe consciousnessof time,now thathe has nothingto do, nowhere to go, littleto fillup the hours except aimless traveling. While Paul Berlinsoughtto denytime,Bowkerseems trappedin a psychological offmeaninglesshours. clock,ticking The difference in howone apprehendstimealso mirrors thedifference betweenfactand fantasy. Eric Schroedermakesa distinction "betweentime past and timepresentand . .. thisbecomes complicatedby the introductionofanothertemporaldimension:timeimagined."The result, Schroeder is an about when a eventhap"not out, points only indeterminacy particular but whether it and the Past Possible" ("The 124). pened, happened" Justas Paul Berlinimagineslifein theWorldoccurring simultaneously duringhis six hours on observationpost, so too Bowkerattempts to reconstruct his realities and time-what presentin theWorldbyconflating past imaginary mighthave been. We see, then,severalpointsof comparisondevelopingbetweenthe two stories."NightMarch"showsa soldier, Paul Berlin,duringthewar;"SpeakNormanBowker, after thewar.Paul Berlin ing of Courage" showsa soldier, to escape the reality ofwarthrough thatofthe attempts fantasy, particularly World;Norman Bowkerfindsthateven thoughhe is in the World,he cannot escape the reality ofwar.Both characters to escape time;both attempt to "feel"time;and neithercan fully develop a preternatural ability escape
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TIM O'BRIEN time imagined-that is, the reality of personal eventsthatshape the enof their lives. tirety Paul Berlin reactsto his immediateworldof war by tryFurthermore, to drive back fear withlaughter, even though it borders on hysteria. ing Norman Bowkerfindshimself in a grim, worldwherenobodylisabsurdist tenstowhathe has to say.TheThings is much a novelabout Carried They very one's an into How does tellthe truth one about telling story apparentabyss. warwhen no one wantsto listen?Here lies the essentialissue forthewriter of the truewar story. The issue is complicated,however, by the veryquestionofwhether and narrative are to tell the story. Thus language adequate in both storiesis roughly the narrative circular, events, replaying lurching intoindecision,in an effort to get the truestory wovenintoa whole. around the "Speakingof Courage" opens on NormanBowkercruising lake one FourthofJuly: "The warwas overand therewas no particular place to go" (The Things Carried [ TTC] 157). Whereasin "NightMarch"there They is a denial of place, in thisstory thereis no place to go. The Worldis everywhere the same as Bowkerremembers it,but it is now perceivedas flatforall of it is seen throughmemory the samenessbecomes empty, shaped like a patrolwithout he wheelshis father's direction, bywar.Aimlessly, "big is flatly Chevy"on itsseven-mile loop around the lake. The lake itself prosaic-a nondescript midwestern lake thatwas "a good audience forsilence" (158). Thus the centralmetaphoris established-an aimless,circulartravZone eling around a vastsilence. Readers of O'Brien's If I Die in a Combat will recognize the same patternin chapter3 of thatwork,where O'Brien recallsdriving around the lake beforebeing drafted, weighinghis own opwithcare fromone argumentto the next" (25). In "Speaktions,"moving and an immenseflatnesseverying of Courage," the "smooth Julywater, where" (TTC 159) suggestthe same uncertainty in the returnedveteran's life. As he travels, NormanBowker'smind aimlessly circlesaround patterns of recollection. The first involves his prewar in memory, imaged specifically his boyhood sweetheart, now Mrs. Gustafson. Norman Kramer, Sally Sally in heryardand almostpullsover"justto talk."But knowspotsherworking was really he could sayto her" (159), he acceleratespast. ing "there nothing Sallyrepresents thingslost,the waythingsmighthave been, and also, perhaps,a measureof Norman'sinternalchange. So too Norman measuresthe townby the huge psychological distance he has grownfromit. The townis home, but "The townseemed remote somehow.Sallywas marriedand Max [his boyhood friend]was drowned and his father was home watching baseball on national TV" (159). While the Worldfallsinto its holidayroutines, Norman Bowkerwandersslightly 107
TWENTIETHCENTURYLITERATURE man, alone in a worldundisturbed apartfromit all. He is the Prufrockian his and like Eliot's he also findsthat"It is impossible Prufrock, anguish, by to sayjust whatI mean." What he saysis thattiredphrase thatpassed the Vietnamsoldierswhenfacedwithyetone more impossible lips of countless task-a polite, meaninglessphrase ripplingwith undertones of anguish: "'No problem,'he muttered" (159). No problem:it was an act of denial in order to survive-a lie then,a lie now. His aimless circlingworksthen to Norman Bowker'sinability to settleback into the routineof demonstrate the Worldand exemplifies the psychological distancebetweenhis former and presentselves. The second pattern is the recollection evokedbyhis aimlesswandering ofwar.The imaginedmeeting withSallyinitiates ofNorman's a recollection war experience,but like Paul Berlin's,thisexperienceis couched in terms of denial: "He would not saya wordabout how he'd almostwon the Silver Starforvalor"(160). The need to speak of it,however, is nearly overwhelmso Norman Bowker with the invents a conversation his father: ing, waythings should have been. The thirdpatternin the story, then,develops the imagiis spoken into unhearingears, signaled by naryconfession.The war story the change in verbs:theyall become "mighthave" or "would have." The discoursetakesplace wholly in the fantasy world. was Norman What people would have heard,ifonlytheyhad listened, Bowker'sstory of how he had courage, of how he almostsaved his friend His father was the apstinkof the shitfield. Kiowa, except forthe terrible one to initiate the for his father also the truthof knew propriate hearing, war: "thatmanybrave men did not win medals fortheirbravery, and that otherswon medalsfordoing nothing"(160). But hisfather is a disappeared selfforNorman Bowker-the person who, himself havinghad no one to listen, has buried the stories and adopted the routine manners of the NormanBowker'sfather is immersedin his presentbyno longerlistening. ownpointless on TV the circle bases in thegreat circularity, watching players nationalpastime. relates his storyto the imagNonetheless,Norman Bowkermentally ined confessor-father. the Recounting experience in the muck field, he the before worst pauses parts: "Sounds pretty wet,"his fatherwould've said, pausing briefly. "So whathappened?" "You sureyou wantto hear this?" "Hey,I'm yourfather." (162) This father "Slowand sweet,takeyourtime,"and Norman slows murmurs, the big Chevy, the mechanical replacementforhis father, on the circular 108
TIM O'BRIEN road. He observesthe fireworks under preparationforthe FourthofJuly celebration.Storiesstartto converge.As he nears the actual fireworks the in muck remembered of the mortar attack the field intensifies. story Oddly, intrudes as the imaginedlistener. But SallyKramer-Gustafson momentarily she is too much of the present.She couldn't listen,Norman Bowkerrealof war is too powerful, too overwhelming, too truthful. izes, forthe reality She would wince even at the language. But his father, were his father here would it understand well that was not of a listening, "perfectly question offensivelanguage but of fact.His father would have sighed and folded his arms and waited" (165). It is a matterof how to tell a truewar story; the factsthemselves are offensive, not the language thatdirectsthe facts.FiKiowa's death, realizes: "A good nallyNorman Bowker,afterrecollecting war story, ... but it was not a war forwarstories, nor fortalkof valor,and in town to wanted know about stink. the terrible nobody Theywantedgood intentions and good deeds. But the townwas not to blame, really. It was a nice littletown, with neat houses and all the convery prosperous, sanitary veniences"(169). After his seventhcircleof the lake, NormanBowkerpulls into a drivein restaurant forsomethingto eat. Ironically, he is as ignorantof procedures at the drive-in as the patronsthereare of his war.The conflict of realitiesis almostperfectly, He honks his horn heart-breakingly, completed. for the car-hopgirl:"The girlsighed, leaned down, and shook her head. Her eyeswere as fluffy and airy-light as cottoncandy" (170). Condescendinglyshe pointsto the intercomand asks,'"Youblind?"Yes. Indeed. Byvirtue of his war experience,Norman is now blind to the waysof the world. He'll neversee straight be circular, thecrooked again; itwillalways through he can neitherdenynor express. pathsof a memory The ironyintensifies, forthe abstracted voice over the intercomrasps at Norman in field communications fromthe war.The phrases clip out: "Fire foreffect. Stand by."The "Affirmative, copy clear." "Roger-dodger." is nearlyovergulfbetween the intercomvoice and Norman's sensibility The warreality is reduced to a game. whelming. of thatvoice stirsNorman. It is Nonetheless,the veryabstractedness just a piece of metal and some strangeelectronicsnext to the Chevywinita voice asks,"Hey,loosen up. .... Whatyou really dow.Still,through need, friend?" And fora moment,in thisweirdelectronicconfessional, Norman almosttells: "Well,"he said, "how'dyou like to hear about-" He stopped and shook his head. "Hear what, man?" "Nothing." (171) 109
TWENTIETHCENTURYLITERATURE He cannot get it out, not even to thisdepersonalizedvoice over the interfather Normanlongs for. com, which,oddlyenough, mimicsthe listening the to tell now a deep, pervasive Norman drivesslowly away, longing ache inside: If it had been possible, which it wasn't, he would have explained how his friendKiowa slipped awaythatnightbeneath the darkswampy field.He was foldedin withthewar;he was partof the waste. Norman Bowkerredrivingslowly, Turningon his headlights, memberedhow he had takenhold of Kiowa'sboot and pulled hard, but how the smell was simplytoo much, and how he'd backed off and in thatwayhad lostthe SilverStar. He wished he could've explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thoughtpossible, but how he had not was important. been so brave as he wanted to be. The distinction Max Arnold,who loved finelines,would've appreciatedit. And his who alreadyknew, would've nodded. father, (172) The longingis buried,however, As thewarstory coilsback deep in memory. inside his brain,he stopsthe Chevy, walksout intothewaterof the lake like one trying to baptizehimself thenstandsand watchesthe intoa new reality, he decided, the town'sownlittle battle."Fora smalltown, fireworks, fantasy itwas a pretty good show"(173). "NightMarch" and "Speakingof Courage" representtwoangles of vision on the Vietnamwar experience. One a war story, the othera postwar From the of denial and affirmation. story, theyare juxtaposed in patterns of Paul Berlin,the immediacy of war mustbe denied in order perspective to retainthe reality of a worldwheresanity From and peace stillhold sway. the worldto whichhe has returnedis deaf to his thatof Norman Bowker, war experience.But the storiesare also very much about the literary artof Examinationof the artistry of the storiesis incomtellinga truewar story. plete withoutconsiderationof the largeraestheticissue towardwhich all the elementspoint.In fact, each story becomes a metafiction: are about they the processof telling warstories as much as they are warstoriesthemselves. This is a fundamental issue thatO'Brien has grappled withand cogently definedduringthedevelopment ofhis career:howto tellthetruewarstory. Vietnamwarwasdifferent from earlierwars, and so posed challenges The to thewriter thatoften himor her thelimits ofconven-
pushed beyond tionalliterary Dennis Vannattaremarks that"partof the probstereotypes. lem that fictionwriters have had is trying to build an artisticstructure 110
TIM O'BRIEN of clearlyestablishedbattle around a war thatlacks the familiar geometry and advances and retreats" lines, troop movements, (242). StevenKaplan observesthat"almostall of the literature on the war ... makes clear that the onlycertainthingduringthe VietnamWar was thatnothingwas ceralso provideda certainliberation tain" (43). Oddly,the very uncertainties for the fictionwriter. It was possible to speak more freely of courage, of and of fears fantasies. cowardice, fromboth inside and The combatveteranwho writes of combatwrites outsidethe experience.Chapter30 of Cacciato providesan interesting gloss on thisfact,forbythatpoint in the book, the reader understands thatthe it is the eltermobservation in meaning. Literally postis multidimensional evated spot one climbsto in order to observe possible enemyaction. But on the observation duringthelong nighthoursitis also a spotforreflective In waritself. And the observation is also a self-reflective post place. chapter withthe opticson the night-vision 30, Berlinhad been fiddling gogglesbut time now is playinga time-guessing Vision and all game. unify the reflections of the observationpost. Now Paul reflects: "It was a matterof hard observationseparating illusion fromreality. What happened, and what have on to He wonder might happened" (247). whyevil thingshapgoes and never the and then with Doc Peret'sview"that pen, pretty things, agrees of obobservationrequiresinward-looking, a studyof the verymachinery servation"(247-48). Insightand vision,and Paul wonders,"wherewas the unfulcrum? Where did it tiltfromfactto imagination?" (248). The writer dertakessuch observation, the to balance outside and inside vision, trying factand imagination.Such is also the basic strategy forO'Brien's linking stories into the unified novel. independent thematically The processoftheinsideand outsidevisionbearsparticular significance forO'Brien's TheThings forhere thewriter is very much aware Carried, They of himself about a historical fiction he himself writing reality experienced. The writer himself into the introduces abruptly years text--"I'mforty-three old, and a writer now,and thewarhas been overfora long while"(36). Of course, this may be construed simplyas a narrativepose. As Catherine Callowayhas pointedout,substantial biographicaldetailsof the authordifferfromthoseof the narrator in the concludingnotes (250). Furthermore, to The ThingsThey O'Brien again introduceshimselfas the fortyCarried, but tellsus that"almosteverything else is invented." writer, three-year-old But he insists "it'snot a game. It's a form"(203). Maria S. Bonn pointsout that"The dizzying of truth and ficinterplay tion in thisnovel is not solelyaestheticpostmoderngamesmanshipbut a formthatis a thematiccontinuationof the author'sconcern throughout his careerwiththe powerand capability of story" (13). While soldierscarry 111
TWENTIETHCENTURYLITERATURE intobattle,as the book's initialchapterdetails,theyalso carry manythings battle.In thiscase, the writer carriesstories,sometimes manythings from no no end" (TTC 39), which, "odd little that have and fragments beginning like the fragmented war itself, he seeks to place into some kind of order. The writer observes: Forty-three yearsold, and the war occurredhalfa lifetime ago, and makes now. the it And sometimes yet remembering remembering which makes it forever. will lead to a story, That's what storiesare for.Stories are forjoining the past to the future.Stories are for thoselate hoursin the nightwhenyou can't remember howyou got fromwhere you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased,when thereis nothingto rememberexcept the story. (40) Whilebitsand pieces of thewriter in and out of the narration, flicker at one point O'Brien stops the narration and the addresses act of altogether itself in "How to Tell a TrueWarStory" (TTC 73-91). He establishes writing severalqualitiesof the truewar story, but the first one seems to contradict whathe has said elsewhereabout the story's engagementwithphilosophical and moralsubstance.In one interview, forexample,O'Brien claimsthat "The writer needs a passionate and knowledgeableconcern for the substance of what'switnessed, and thatincludes the spiritual and theological and politicalimplications of rawexperience" (qtd. in McCaffery 137). And in anotherinterview, he pointsout that"Myconcerns have to do withabstractions: what'scourage and how do you getit?What's justice and how do you achieve it? How does one do rightin an evil situation?" (qtd. in Schroeder,"TwoInterviews" 145). But thereis a difference betweenexploringthe moralmeaningsof humans confronting battleand the didacticreductionof thatconfrontation to moral precept.The truewar story, O'Brien says,"does not instruct, nor nor suggestmodels of proper human behavior,nor reencourage virtue, strainmen fromdoing the thingsmen have alwaysdone. If a story seems moral, do not believe it" (TTC 76). Truthto experience is a higher aestheticvalue than moral precept.Moral lessonsare not givenby the writer. thewriter's taskis to represent so thatothRather, experienceauthentically ers understandthe event,and fromthatunderstanding theymay,if they choose, adduce theirown morallessons. This is particularly trueregarding courage,thevexingissuebeforePaul Berlin and Norman Bowker.What actuallyconstitutes courage? Perhaps that'sthewrongquestionbecause it'stoo easyto givecategoricalresponses. EitherPaul or Norman mighthave won the SilverStar-a physicalrepre112
TIM O'BRIEN sentationofan act of courage. Much harderis to assesscourage as a quality of human natureitself, In an yetthatis the taskO'Brien sets forhimself. that the of a whole fabric interview, O'Brien says "Courage interpenetrates life.To take a strandout and saythisis courage and thisis somethingelse violatesa centralhumanness"(qtd. in Naparsteck 4). Ifthereis an ethicsof for it that the moral for the assumes writing O'Brien, highest imperative is an authenticrevelation writer of human nature. A second challenge to the writer arises precisely of the truewar story out of thateffort toward event is recalled Every bytheintellect authenticity. and as the emotions experienced during the event; writing involves,as the head the heart. O'Brien the and understood, Hemingway challenge puts like this:"In anywarstory, but especially a trueone, it's difficult to separate what happened fromwhatseemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes itsown happeningand has to be told thatway.The angles of vision are skewed"(TTC 78). The difficulty is precisely enacted through Paul Berlin in Cacciato. The story is as much about the fantasy of war as it is about the so-calledreality. Soldiersare dreamers:thatdreamingis a partof their what O'Brien calls "thatsurrealseemingness"(Cacciato78). Parareality, as Steven doxically, Kaplan has observed,the war fictionbecomes "more real thanthe eventsupon whichit is based" (46) when the lifeof the imaginationarrangesthe experienceofthe facts. artis neverstraightforLiterary ward fact;rather, it arrangesfactsto communicatewhatthe authorwishes to seem trueforthe reader. A third trait of the truewarstory, be called accordingto O'Brien, might its fundamental inconclusiveness. O'Brien "You can tell a truewar story," the it never seems to Not not end. ever" writes, then, (TTC 83). "by way Vietnamgave the lie to tidy endings.It lingers yetin the mindsofveterans, as sneakingup duringunprotectedmoments.It lingersforthemprecisely it does forNorman Bowker.Thus, the truewar storyresistsreductionto As O'Brien observes,"In the end, really, generalized moral statements. there's nothingmuch to say about a truewar story, except maybe 'Oh"' (TTC 84). The truewar storytells the thingsthathappen to real people. They out of abject fearand loneliness,dream awaythe hourson observamight, tion post, delighting, as Cacciato does, in a stickof Black Jack gum. Or, stricken thatno one wants by the inconsolable lonelinessof havinga story to listento, theymightdrivein endless circlesaround an unruffled lake. Late in The ThingsThey MitchellSanders exclaims,"'Hey, man, I Carried, "He wiped his eyes and just realized something.'"Then, verydeliberately, as ifawed byhis ownwisdom."It is thewisdomalso conspoke very quietly, "'Death sucks,'he said" (271). veyedbythe truewarstory. 113
TWENTIETH CENTURY LITERATURE
WORKS CITED
of the Text." Bonn, Maria S. "Can StoriesSave Us? Tim O'Brien and the Efficacy 36 (Fall 1994): 2-15. Critique Calloway,Catherine. "'How to Tell a True War Story':Metafictionin The Things 26 (Summer 1995): 249-57. TheyCarried." Critique of the Narratorin Tim O'Brien's The Kaplan, Steven. "The UndyingUncertainty 35 (Fall 1993): 43-52. ThingsTheyCarried." Critique Nest.New York:Viking,1962. Kesey,Ken. OneFlewovertheCuckoo's withTim O'Brien." Chicago 33 (1982): 129Review Larry."Interview McCaffery, 49. Literature withTim O'Brien." Contemporary 32 Naparsteck,Martin."An Interview 1-11. 1991): (Spring Cacciato.New York: Delta, 1978. O'Brien, Tim. GoingAfter I Die in Zone.New York: Dell, 1972. a Combat If --. Boston: Houghton, 1990. -. The ThingsTheyCarried. "We're Too Well." The Wounded Generation: America VietAfter -. Adjusted nam. Ed. A. D. Horne. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1981. 205-07. and Writing theVietnam War. Rignalda, Don. Fighting Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1994. Schroeder, Eric James. "The Past and the Possible: Tim O'Brien's Dialectic of and Clear.Ed. WilliamJ. Searle. BowlMemoryand the Imagination."Search ing Green: Bowling Green State UP, 1988. 116-34. 1."Two Interviews: Talks withTim O'Brien and Robert Stone." Modern FictionStudies30 (Spring 1984): 135-64. Cacciato." Vannatta,Dennis. "Theme and Structurein Tim O'Brien's GoingAfter Modern Fiction Studies 28 (1982): 242-46.
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