Stories

In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried the writer shares rather personal stories to the reader that expose the brutality, love, hatred, death and so much more within the war. One passage toward the beginning of this book that stood out to me was the following: " Forty-three years old, and the war occurred half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering makes it now. And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. That's what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity when memory is erased when there is nothing to remember except the story" (36). This passage reflects the sheer meaning of this book as a whole. Each story presented to the reader dives into the past of Tim O'Brien and how the war will always be engrained into his mind through the stories he shares and recalls. Whether it be a story he has never shared, such as pondering over the idea to flee to Canada, or the memories that lasted among his friends and the jokes regarding the things they carried with them, O'Brien creates this unique book to dive into the real encounters of the war. While a reader may never understand the true hardships of a soldier, he or she certainly can understand and appreciate that war is most definitely complex, and that even some stories should never be shared. Untold stories may be because the story could expose fear or cowardness. In my own experience, the stories that are passed down to me are much different than war stories, although they may hold similar weight in my heart. For instance, milestone memories my grandfather has told me about his childhood, I will always hold close to myself since it "joins the past to the future." This passage to me reflects how I perceive all of the nighttime tales my parents use to share with me and how my imagination drifted into a story each night. While my fairytales are entirely different than wartime stories, the idea that the words passed down from generation to generation and always remains intriguing and thoughtful is what is most important. Without stories, one may never catch a glimpse into another person's life or mind, or the troubles, pain, love, and happiness that he or she has experienced.