Conclusion of The Things They Carried

With the second half of his novel The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien follows the same short-story structure of the first of the novel.  The novel continues to sway from the traditional novel formula of story telling and completely lacks a central story arch that is followed throughout the book.  In this way, The Things They Carried differs from traditional war novels, avoiding stories of missions and victories and defeats.  Instead, the novel continues to focus on the almost random memories the soldiers had of the war.  In doing this, O'Brien continues to comment on the power of story telling and creates a novel that rings true on an emotional level instead of a factual one.

One of the main points O'Brien makes in his novel is that it is the experience and emotions that should be portrayed in stories, not the factual and historically accurate information.  This is clearly shown in the chapter "Field Trip" when the character O'Brien takes his daughter Kathleen to the mud field that O'Brien's best friend was killed in.  When reaching the site, neither O'Brien nor Kathleen were deeply affected by the scene.  Kathleen, while attempting to remain interested and respectful, was bored by the plain, smelly field.  O'Brien, expecting to relive the emotions he felt the day of Kiowa's death, was disappointed by the reality of the field.  To O'Brien, the memory of the field brought upon him great sadness due to the death of his best friend.  The memory also brought him back to a time that he was no longer a part of, the world of war.  But no, being present standing in front of the field, O'Brien feels strangely disconnected.  The field, not as O'Brien remembered it, is now location of merely historical, not emotional, significance.  Like the rest of the world, the field has moved on from the war.  It no longer has the craters from the bombs or the salt from the sweat and tears of the men in it.  Time has worn away the marks of war, leaving nothing but memories to prove that the events happened at all.  In this way, O'Brien is demonstrating that memories and stories are the only true connection to the past.  While historical facts and evidence can bring us closer to the events of the past, they cannot instill within us the emotions that went along with the events.  This is why the act of story telling is so powerful.  Through stories, we revive the past and bring the emotions of the past to the present.

In a way, stories that we tell are merely manifestations of the emotions that we remember from the past.  Memories, unlike the landscape of the mud field, are save from the corrosion of time and live on with each story told.  These stories continue to carry the emotions of the past and are passed on, allowing the past to continue living in the future.