Karma's a Bitch

Upon finishing The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, I have come to the conclusion that karma's a bitch. Throughout the novel (or short story collection, I'm not sure), all of the characters seem haunted by their past and compelled to do things they're not comfortable with, simply for the sake of getting even. When a character does something seemingly heroic, he does not feel happy for his success, but instead haunted by the lives he hurt. In fact, a lot of the main characters seem to be fighting their own emotional battles during the war.

For starters, Tim O'Brien, the author and protagonist, reveals many dark secrets he doesn't know how to share with anyone. In the chapter/short story "On the Rainy River," he opens with, "[t]his is one story I've never told before. Not to anyone. Not to my parents, not to my brother or sister, not even to my wife" (37). He then goes into detail about a story he feels quite shameful about--the story of how he almost ran away from the war. In fact, this turns into an ongoing theme in this book. Many characters feel ashamed of their true feelings, and are forced to suppress them under a facade of manliness.

In "Enemies," the author gives us a clear example of the war mentality. In it, Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk get into a fight over a stolen knife. Jensen totally whoops him, leaving Strunk with a broken nose. Afterward, however, Jensen isn't satisfied. In fact, he becomes terrified and even paranoid of what Strunk's revenge will be. "It got to the point finally where he lost control. Something must've snapped" (60). He becomes frantic, eventually firing his gun into the air and using it to break his own nose. It is this kind of behavior that can be used to understand the severe mental strains soldiers are put under when on the battlefield. As O'Brien would put it, instead of a "happy war story" that ends with a heroic character, the servicemen are much more aware of the immediate consequences of war. As displayed here, Jensen convinces himself he will have to pay for his actions, even though Strunk just ends up laughing it off once he hears the news. Interestingly, Jensen and Strunk end up growing closer after this encounter in the subsequent story "Friends," even making a pact to the death.

Similarly, "The Dentist" also expresses this mindset of getting even, especially as a ways of proving one's worthiness as a soldier. In it, Tim's platoon is visited by a dentist, who is to check everyone's teeth. One man, Curt Lemon, is fidgety all day, later confessing that he had bad encounters with dentists in the past. He goes into the tent anyways, then ends up fainting. He is mortified and goes nearly insane, with Tim noting "the embarrassment must've turned a screw in his head" (84). As a result, he sneaks into the dentist tent late one night and demands he have a tooth pulled. The dentist, who at first finds nothing, eventually shrugs and pulls out a healthy tooth, to Curt Lemon's delight. It is this kind of behavior that goes to show just how crazy people can get in this environment.

All this leads me back to the title of this book, The Things They Carried. In the opening pages, the author goes into detail about the physical items soldiers carry on their backs. However, as the story progresses, it becomes clear that the men also carry emotional burdens. This explains the constant flashbacks O'Brien includes in this novel. The stories of Dave Jensen and Curt Lemon in particular go to show the extent of these strains, and just how damaging they can be to individuals in the war.