VIETNAM WAR: REDRAWING OF LOADS THROUGH THE WORKS OF TIM O’ BRIEN’S THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

Abstract

War and memory are interrelated and it represents a verisimilitude approach through the presentation of distinction among legitimate history, intellectual history and the military histories of the war (written history of armed forces, journalist). In the history of War, there are natural tendencies of legitimate historians to hide the discursive history of war (from ground zero) from the ordinary people. Most of time, the physical and psychological pain of battalions during the war , their agony, trauma and frustrations are not penned down and people of the nations(defeated and triumph nations) are unaware of the true history of ground zero. In this paper, I would like to analysis American War on Vietnam through the work of Tim O’Brien. Vietnam War is also known as “War against the Americans to save the Nation” or “American War in Vietnam”. Tim O’Brien is an American novelist and he contributes in the war. He has ranked as a sergeant in military. His semi-autobiographical novel, Things They Carried points out his experiences in the Vietnam War. It is an empathetic, as well as, fictional account of nonfictional story of American soldiers through the jungles of Vietnam. It is a story of loss and love, guilt and fear. In War, soldiers carry their necessary things (physical objects) like matches, Morphine, M-16 Rifles and Candy. After the War, they bring grief, terror, guilt, confusion and the brutality of War as a return gift. After life of War, each soldiers’ physical loss underscores under emotional loss. In this memoir, Tim O’Brien delineates how soldiers carry heavy physical and psychological loads in the War.