TTTC Reality and Fiction

Throughout The Things They Carried there are points where O’Brien plays with the concept of reality and fiction.

Like we discussed in class, there are points where O’Brien fades the line between reality and fiction- such as his odd dedication and use of self-insertion- but besides this pulling reality into fiction, there are also certain moments where he pulls back, much like a reminder of the true nature of the story.

One of the interesting points is in “The Man I Killed.” It’s on page 119 and starts at “He had been born…” and goes all the way to “even when he was asleep.” Now, not only is this all a part of one paragraph (and takes up nearly the whole page), but I think that this specific insert acts as a reminder that this is a work of fiction. The point of this man is that he is the man killed by O’Brien. In reality the man would have been killed and that would have been the end of it. There would be no backstory, no possibilities. It’s a war and people die (as cold as that sounds, that’s the known reality). This man is never given a name, yet as readers we get a view into his life, his strengths and his weaknesses- aspects that fall outside of physical description and concrete facts. This reminder is also enforced by the fact that after this long, descriptive story of this unnamed dead man, the book moves right back into focus, shifting to conversation.