The Things They Carried and Attention to Detail

     In The Things They Carried, there is an interesting focus on certain atrocities rather than others. There a lot of different scenes that we read and find disturbing, such as the death of one of the platoon members when he stepped on a trap, but only a few scenes are focused on by O’Brian. The best example of a time that a lot of detail incorporated into the description of the atrocity was when Rat Killey brutally murdered the buffalo. This section is especially gory when you compare it to the amount of detail incorporated into the scene about the death of Rat’s Friend. The only description we are given is that he was shot, and there does not seem to be much more information.

     The interesting thing is why O’Brian chooses to give more information at some points rather than at others. Although I can never know for sure the real reason, I believe that the author is trying to represent war in a unique way. He focuses on telling stories that differ from the normal “hero based” way. We see this in how he generally talks about the time between battles rather than the battles. Back to the point, by showing the dark side of the war through unusual atrocities, O’Brian creates stories that do not glorify the war. 

      Examples of this is not only the buffalo story but also in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. In this story we are given an immense amount of detail on the hut of the Greenies and Marry Anne’s change. All of this information gives us the idea of a group of savages rather than the normal army life we are shown in other stories. This area is compared to what we are shown of the rest of the base, and in my opinion shows how O’Brian is trying to show the bad side of war. Overall, O’Brian masterfully uses his stories as well as the amount of detail in them to shed light on how war is not what other stories make it out to be.