The Things They Carried

In the chapter, How to Tell a True War Story, O'Brien's writing style is unconventional and complex in the way he tells a story little by little, while changing the subject within the telling to discuss what a true war story really is. The second section of the chapter begins with, "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" (O'Brien 76). He continues to list characteristics of what a true war story should and shouldn't do or evoke. One story that he tells is the death of Curt Lemon, and each section it is discussed the story gets more specific. I wasn't sure what had exactly caused Curt's death at first, because it is told vaguely and abstractly: "... when he died it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms" (78). It's a beautiful image, and not gruesome or crude as war stories typically are. Towards the end of the chapter, a section written with similarities to this one gives more explanation. That Curt had stepped on a bomb. Comparisons are made between the sunlight and the "fatal whiteness" of the bomb explosion. It is also revealed in the chapter that Curt's body was blown into the trees and his body parts scattered, explaining the words about sunlight lifting him up and sucking him into a tree. I really enjoy O'Brien's writing techniques in this novel, how stories are told bit by bit and sporadically, and it seems that it continues throughout the whole novel and not only within each chapter.