*The Things They Carried:Week 2.

Having relatives and friends in war, we’ve all heard some sort of story about what happens at war. However, are all of the stories that we hear true? Or are emotions imbedded within that distort the true meaning of what actually happened? In the chapter, How To Tell A True War Story, O’Brien states that a war story “never instructs, nor encourages virtue, nor suggests models of proper human behavior, nor restrains men from doing the things men have always done” instead, O’Brien clarifies that war stories are justified true if the listener feels certain emotions, and can “feel it in your stomach if the story is true.”

Within the chapter, O’Brien expresses many war stories, but the reader has to decide whether the stories are true or not. O’Brien explains how many stories get distorted because the speaker tends to add personal feelings within, or their memory is foggy in certain areas, so one must adlib to make the story more believable.

Curt Lemon is one of the stories O’Brien recites. Physically, Curt died a horrible, gruesome death. However, when O’Brien tells the story, he concentrates solely on the beauty of Curt’s death as how it was “almost beautiful.” Speaking of how “the sunlight came around him, and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms,” rather than the gore, and the gruesomeness. Rather than mentioning the distressing emotions the men feel, O’Brien instead describes how Dave Jensen sang “Lemon Tree as we threw down the parts” of Curt in the tree. I found it quite amazing how through all the ghastly and dreadful sights O’Brien saw, the most important aspect for him was to get across how the sunlight looked on Curt’s face before he died. O’Brien would speak of other occurrences within the chapter, yet always go back to try to explain more in depth the vision of Curt when he died; almost as if Curt’s death wasn’t an awful experience, but rather something that was meant to happen.

Another story spoken of is how Mark Fossie invites Mary Ann Bell, his girlfriend, to come spend time at war with himself. Mary first arrives as “a cute blonde, just a kid barely out of high school” but all of that soon changes as Mary gets a taste of war. Desiring to adapt to the culture Mary is newly thrown into, she begins learning “phrases of Vietnamese” and “how to cook rice over a can of Sterno and eat with her hands”; Mary was basically turning into one of ‘the guys.’ Mary became very curious about the land, and all that occurred in the war. That surprised me a bit that Mary would be so curious about the war, and want to be a part of what was going on. Inferring how Mark Fossie describes her at the beginning, the reader would most likely assume that Mary is just a high school girl, afraid to ‘get her hands dirty.’ The most shocking part to the story is the fact that after Mark sends Mary back home, she comes back to the war three weeks later, yet doesn’t bother telling Mark of her arrival. When Mark discovers Mary in a tent with greenies, the smell of “joss sticks, incense” and “…a mix of blood and scorched hair” soon flood Mark’s nose. Mark spots around Mary’s neck a necklace of human tongues “like pieces of blackened leather.” Mary has evolved from a character of being “young” “blonde” and “beautiful” to a character that has completely transformed because of what has gone on at Vietnam. By telling this story, O’Brien gets the point across to the reader just how much war changes someone from their naïve self, to killing others and hanging tongues around their neck; the gruesome effects that war has on everyone that is a part of war and how drastically the effects can change people.

Not only does war force a major change on the personality of people, but war also takes an emotional toll on soldiers. In Stockings, O’Brien speaks of Henry Dobbins, “a good man, and a superb soldier” yet Henry feels the emotional strain of being away from his girlfriend. Around Henry’s neck is the pantyhose of his girlfriend. Wearing pantyhose around Henry’s neck was a sort of “talisman” for him. The pantyhose had the ability to “keep him safe” and leave Henry pleasant thoughts where “things were soft and intimate” feelings which are essential to staying sane in war. After Henry’s girlfriend dumped him, the wearing of her pantyhose continued, for “the magic doesn’t go away” and the feeling Henry associates with them are still comforting.