Love and War

Love is defined as a feeling of deep affection towards something or someone. While the gruesome war novel, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, might not reflect it in a literal sense, it is in fact a love story. It encompasses the ugliness of the war by magnifying the beauty and affection O’Brien has for the characters in the novel. O’Brien reflects on his deep affection for places, memories, and people as well as their actions. The author focuses on the loss of his best friend, Kiowa, as one of the short love stories in this novel. Often he emotionalizes and projects his own interpretation of these events, communicating that “story truth is truer than happening truth,” which increases the authenticity of each love story. O’Brien ends the collection of memoirs with his childhood love story which is perceived as innocent as he talks about a simple boy and girl love story in grade school, but is very real and tragic like the Vietnam War. O’Brien’s talent in recounting his love for the Soldiers of the Alpha Company with his own emotion and interpretation is what makes this war novel a true love story. 

O’Brien often romanticizes the people in the war, making it feel almost like a love story. He beautifully narrates places, memories and most importantly people and their actions. Notably, Jimmy Cross’ affection for the Apha Company can be perceived in this novel. The element of storytelling and use of metafiction is also present as in the second chapter entitled “Love,” Jimmy Cross discourages O’Brien from making him look weak and talks about his love interest Martha instead he says: “‘Make me out to be a good guy, okay? Brave and handsome, all that stuff. Best platoon leader ever,’” (O’Brien 29). His weakness in this novel turns out to be love, as he thinks a soldier should be tough and inconsiderate. Cross instead falls in love with a college student, Martha. She doesn’t love him back, so his obsession with her becomes a harm to himself and his duty as a lieutenant. Cross ends up sacrificing one love, the one of Martha, for another, his men, and burns all of her letters and photographs. This sacrifice magnifies this connection to love and war as he prevents her from distracting him even though she was his motivation almost like Kiowa, O’Brien’s best friend.  

How often has one encountered the loss of a best friend? O’Brien’s loss of his best friend is one of the most powerful love stories in the novel, especially with his use of storytelling and story truth. O’Brien shows a deep affection for places through his novel, often through a rememory, also a theme in Beloved. This connection is drawn through Kiowa’s tragic death by the side of the Song Tra Bong River where the platoon recovers his body and a rucksack with moccasins. After many years O’Brien returns to Vietnam with his daughter. His daughter expresses a nationwide ignorance about the war; however, O’Brien experiences a deep remembrance of the land and mostly his dearest friend, Kiowa. 

[Kathleen] “…pinched her nose and watched me wade out to where the water reached my knees. Roughly here, I decided, was where Mitchell Sanders had found Kiowa’s rucksack. I eased myself down, squatting at first, then sitting. There was again that sense of recognition. The water rose to midchest, a deep greenish brown, almost hot. Small water bugs skipped along the surface. Right here, I thought. Leaning forward, I reached in with the moccasins and wedged them into the soft bottom, letting them slide away. Tiny bubbles broke along the surface. I tried to think of something decent to say, something meaningful and right, but nothing came to me.” (O’Brien 178)  

This moment in the story is by far one of the most powerful as O’Brien tries to reconnect with the war but his efforts fail due to the sheer beauty of Vietnam; however, the smell of the field persists giving him a small window to the past. He then pays homage to Kiowa, his best friend, by letting go of his friend’s moccasins in the river right by where Kiowa was deceased. The bubbles that rise represent Kiowa’s presence, importance ,and love being reciprocated. This is a notion of how influential the war was for those who lost someone and represents the themes of guilt but mostly the “deep affection” for his best friend.   

A further connection that O’Brien draws between love and war is spelled out in the chapter “How to Write a True War Story ” as he clearly states what a war story should consist of: “And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It’s about sunlight. It’s about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It’s about love and memory. It’s about sorrow. It’s about sisters who never write back and people who never listen,” (O’Brien 81) In this instance of metafiction, as he indicates to the reader the process of writing a war story, he states that a true war story really is not about war but instead it is about every other emotion, particularly love, feeling and memory. This additionally ties in the themes of storytelling and story truth  compared to happening truth. His dramatization of certain events is described as story truth which is truer than happening truth as it emcompasses his correct interpretation of the deaths of the people that he truly loved. 

The end of the book is what reminds the reader that this is a profound love story. Linda takes the form of O’Briend’s childhood love and while the reader pictures the relationship as innocent O’Brien assures us it is real. Linda is O’Brien’s first encounter with love but also death which causes him to relate her death to those of his other loved ones like Curt Lemon, Ted Lavender, Norman Bowker, and Kiowa. Linda had a terminal brain tumor and wore a red cap ever since hers and O’Brien’s first date. He takes note of this but decides not to question it as he cares about her deeply. One day at school a boy by the name of Nick Venhoff pulls the cap off her head to reveal her bandages. Following this, Linda dies being the first death that Tim O’Brien witnesses. When he attends her wake he is stressed and nervous yet eager to see his friend again he fashbacks between Linda’s lifeless body “She looked dead. She looked heavy and totally dead,” (O’Brien 229)  and the other bodies he encountered at a later date: “In the months after Ted Lavender died, there were many other bodies. I never shook hands—not that—but one afternoon I climbed a tree and threw down what was left of Curt Lemon. I watched my friend Kiowa sink into the muck along the Song Tra Bong,” (O’Brien 229) This progression of his encounters resonates with the reader and with death makes a greater impact as we approach the end of the story; this is why O’Brien saves Linda’s story as a remarkable ending. Some readers may seem disappointed by an ending that does not contain a war scene; however it encounters the idea of love as one of the themes of this story. Not only does Linda’s story make a connection to love but also other notable themes such as shame, guilt and regret.  

“As Tim O’Brien states, “It wasn’t a war story. It was a love story” morphing a tragedy of war into a highlight of true love and affection.”

It is almost impossible to associate a war novel with love but sometimes the ugliest of things remind one of the obvious beauty of others. As Tim O’Brien states, “It wasn’t a war story. It was a love story” morphing a tragedy of war into a highlight of true love and affection. This is expressed in the novel with O’Brien’s stylistic choice of story truth. The emotions that he embodies while expressing his story truth that he interprets from the happening truth give the reader a larger sense of a love story due to the sincerity of his words and feelings. The death in this novel only makes the love brighter and more authentic. From his struggles of losing his best friend and childhood love to representing the love in places, memories and other characters truly makes this novel, originally thought to be about war,  one of the rawest, truest love stories.