In "How to Tell a True War Story," Tim O'Brien references the death of his comrade, Curt Lemon, several times. On the first such occasion, O'Brien mentions it in passing, focusing instead on Rat writing a letter about the incident to his sister. On the next occasion, O'Brien vaguely describes what occurred, stating that "the sunlight came around him and
lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms" (2). On and on the essay goes, and periodically O'Brien lets his audience know more and more of what occurred on that fateful day. As it turns out, Lemon stepped on a 105, a land mine, and was blown into several pieces and scattered over the trees. The way that O'Brien repeats the events of this story are indicative of the flashbacks associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. During flashbacks, a person can feel as if they are not only seeing and feeling the event over again as in memories, but rather reliving it, or experiencing it again as if for the first time. As jarring as the original traumatic event might have been for O'Brien, I cannot even begin to imagine how unbelievably distressing it must be to have to relive that event time and time again.
O'Brien also uses contradiction several times in the piece, most notably on page 7. "It can be argued... that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty" (7). This may be indicative of another symptom of PTSD: derealization. In a way, O'Brien seems to split his war experience into two separate worlds: the tragic and the beautiful. One who experiences derealization often feels as if they are living apart from themselves, or are split between several factions of life that never really seem to connect; sometimes they even appear to contradict. O'Brien very obviously presents the contradiction of war in such a way that it was almost derealized - or separate - from itself.
Lastly, I'd like to leave off by saying that I really enjoyed the poetry of O'Brien's writing. His bluntness, even within metaphor, is absolutely spectacular. The last paragraph of the essay took my breath away, and I'm honestly not sure if I will ever recover completely.
Nice post. I liked your use of quotes, especially the way you tied the second quote into the effects of derealization. Derealization is a confusing concept and your explanation provides an clear picture of just how difficult it is for those suffering from PTSD to live a cohesive and grounded existence. Especially "...feels as though they are living apart from themselves." I legitimately can't imagine what it must be like to go through life like that, or how one goes about settling back into their own psyche and identity. In some ways, O'Brien shows the same thing through how jumbled and divided his story is. It's almost like there's two writers trying to convey the same information, and they can't agree on what really happened.
ReplyDeleteI also loved O'Brien's writing style. Switching from blunt statements and absolutes, to open questions, to outright lies and contradictions of things he's already said gives the reader a lot of information to sift through and process for such a short piece.