Themes that I have seen arise throughout O'Brien's writing are ones such as, misconception and there are no such things as a silver lining in a true war story. Misconception can be seen in most stories, as the characters struggle to deal with the moral conflicts they see and face in war. When O'Brien tells his story of the man he has killed we see how his reaction totally differs from his reaction of watching one of his comrades die. When comrades such as, Lemon, is blown up and sent up into the "lemon" tree O'Brien is shocked, he isn't appalled. When O'Brien sees the 20 year old man, who doesn't even want to be at war, lifeless from a grenade he claimed he didn't have to throw dead on the jungle trails, he breaks. He does not say how long but, he spends quite a bit of time staring and vividly describing the sight of the man he has killed. On logistical terms you would expect more emotion from the loss of a comrade than the loss of an enemy. Yet, that isn't the case O'Brien is immediately overcome with guilt and empathy for the man labeled as his enemy but, who he saw as just another man fighting a war he didn't want to fight like himself.
The reason that there are no silver linings in these war stories became apparent after Norman Bowker carries the story of how he could have saved Kiowa. He doesn't describe the story as a story of how his comrade got taken in battle, but as how if he had enough "uncommon courage" he could have won a silver star. He has already received 7 other medals for what he calls "common courage. " Norman is stuck with this story and does not tell any one of the story that he wants, like his father. Instead he drives around the lake acting out what the conversation would be like and how the smell is why he was unable to pull Kiowa from the muck. He is asked by a drive through attendant if he would like to tell them his story but, Norman refuses. Even if he did tell him the story, would the drive through attendant understand, is what I think stopped Norman from telling a story he has been itching to tell his father, or the girl he was with before the war took her as well. Norman is home from the war but the only thing he is left with is his stories and 7 medals for common courage that we most likely would have traded for the one uncommon courage medal that would have saved his comrades life.
I absolutely agree that misconceptions are a significant theme in Obrien’s The Things They Carried. I think that he sets misconceptions aside for his stories and he tries to tell the ugly truth, not shying away from gruesome details etc. I also really like your use of the phrase there is no silver linings in war, I think it clearly symbolizes Obrien’s efforts to tell the “ugly truth” in his war stories. Your choice of which Obrien stories was a good choice, especially to support the idea that the theme of misconceptions are present in Obrien’s The Things They Carried.
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