The main theme in O´Brien´s
“The Man I Killed” is regret. Although, regret is not directly specified as
such in the story; it can be easily perceived by what´s being told. O´Brien
mentions the dead man´s appearance multiple times as he sat there in front of
him for a while. Also, it clearly resulted in O´Brien being temporarily in a
state of shock, considering Kiowa tried to reanimate him by talking to him
multiple times, and trying to get him to at least say something, but O´Brien
never said a word and just kept on staring at the dead man´s body and imagining
how his life must have been like. Thus, even though regret itself is not
mentioned, it can be easily perceived as we read his anecdote.
One theme that we also
find in “Speaking of Courage” is shame. Norman Bowker is a soldier that came
back from Vietnam and won seven medals throughout his service, but he could´ve
won eight, a medal rewarded for valor. One day in Vietnam, he and his partners
established themselves in a lake close to a village to spend the night. The
lake had an awful smell though; the smell of “dead fish” and “shit” since the
villagers didn´t exactly have plumber services, they used the lake. That night
the troops got attacked with mortars, and in Bowker´s attempt to rescue his
injured partner, Kiowa, he ended up letting him go since he couldn´t stand the
smell any longer and just closed his eyes as he heard the chaos around him,
thus he failed to be recognized for his valor, a shameful story, yet the one he
would remember best from the war. Shame is not mentioned in the story, but it
is perceived as it is being told, especially when Bowker is about to tell it to
the guy in the fast food restaurant, but decides not to in the end:
“¨Well,¨ he said,
¨how´d you like to hear about-¨
He stopped and shook
his head.
¨Hear what, man?¨
¨Nothing.¨
¨Well, hey,¨ the
intercom said ¨I´m sure as fuck not going anywhere. Screwed to a post, for God
sake. Go ahead, try me.¨
¨Nothing.¨
¨You sure?¨
¨Positive, all done.¨
The intercome made a
light sound of disappointment.
¨Your choice, I guess.
Over an´out.¨
¨Out,¨ said Norman Bowker.”
(O´Brien: “The Things They Carried”- 146)
I really liked the theme of regret throughout the entire story of “The Man I Killed” as well. One of the things that stuck out to me the most was the way he would describe the “star” shape on the dead man and just keep going back and rementioning it when he would get distracted. I also liked how in “How to Tell A True War Story” there was the theme of Shame sprinkled throughout. I know that doesn’t sound like the same as regret but I think they’re very close. For example, in “How to Tell a True War Story” the shaming aspect came primarily because Rat was ashamed of himself for the death of Lemon, whom he believed he was partially responsible for.
ReplyDeleteI also agree. The fact that he is making up this whole story and has no prior knowledge to knowing who the man he kills says something in itself. It is amazing how ones life could change so drastically after being drafted into war. One minute he is at home, the next he is deciding whether or not he is going to flee to Canada, and then... well, this.
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