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HISTORICAL PERCEPTION

Historical Perception is what a person deciphers from their understanding and how they interpret information in becoming their reality of the truth. When it comes to Tim O' Brien's The Things They Carried, the audience is left with the question; Is the historical context based on factual events or imaginative scenes? Perhaps, it is the readers perception that ultimately determines this question, instead of O'Brien's accounts for the truth. Within O'Brien's work there are close encounters from his personal experiences in Vietnam, whether it was the region he was in or the relationships he had with the men by his side, smudged with gray areas from the imagination of a writer, which are all wrap together from a perceptional historical context within his work. There is no doubt within O'Brien's narrative context lies historical based facts from his own experiences in the Quang Ngai Providence in Vietnam. "O'Brien arrived in Vietnam in February 1969. He was assigned to an infantry unit in Quang Ngai Province, a region of central South Vietnam along the South China Sea." (Wiener 23). In The Things They Carried the setting takes place in the jungles of Vietnam, where O'Brian had seen combat for himself. Wiener writes that "Many of the events described in The Things They Carried closely mirrored O'Brien's own experiences. In addition, many of the interrelated stories are set in O'Brien's home state of Minnesota or in Quang gal Province, where he was stationed during the war." (Wiener 26-27). This shows that there is some factual data based on the place where O'Brien's characters live their war nightmares, and so did O'Brien himself. Benjamin Goluboff includes, To a greater degree than has been realized, O'Brien's Vietnam books are rooted in the verifiable history of a very local war." (Goluboff 53). Jay Ellis articulates that " All are informed by O'Brien's experience in the Vietnam War. During the interview, I was interested in his merging of fact and fiction." (Ellis 48). Ellis, as many others, are intrigued about the interlinked factual context with the exchange of fictional momentous displaced in his writing. Bahr goes on to say that "O'Brien has written about his experience as a Vietnam veteran in the form of a memoir, a work of metafiction, and a journalistic essay. His memoir and essay are evidently works of creative nonfiction. Yet The Things They Carried demonstrates that the distinction between fiction and creative nonfiction is not decisive and that the two forms influence and borrow from each other, especially in life writing." (Ellis 48-49). It is perplexing to think that O'Brien has mingled the two types of literature to confuse the reader in making their own perceptions as to view the text as fictional or nonfictional work. Together as one, this story is based on an actual setting, experiences, feelings, and curiosities that could have occurred scenarios within O'Brien's time in South Vietnam. Similarities are often guided throughout his work that portray the likeness of his brothers in combat. Wiener points out that "Moreover, the collection features several characters who are closely based on soldiers that O'Brien met in Vietnam." (Wiener 27). In fact, in an interview with Koki Nomura, Tim O'Brien gives insight about his best friend Alvin "Chip" Merricks who died in Vietnam by stating "I still dream about him occasionally, so I haven't erased him from my memory." (Nomura). And that, This was a time of great tension in America between white and black people in the military. But for reasons I don't think either of us understood, we just liked each other. And I think he had fun being with me and I had fun being with him, and we were human together. I don't remember thinking of him as "a black guy. I remember thinking of him as a "guy" who was black the same way that I was short. But he is alive in my head and he's fun and verbally very articulate. All it was …was that his foot came down in one spot and not another. What terrible luck. (Nomura). Racism in the 1960s was prevalent but that this did not deter either of them to become good friends and unfortunately, their friendship in the flesh was taken from O' Brien too early, but "Chip" lives in conversational dialogues with him, keeping his imagination alive in his memory. James Westheider proclaimed that "Many African Americans were dedicated and loyal to the armed forces for giving them opportunities not generally available in civilian life. Vietnam, they believed, was a level playing field, where blacks served equally with whites and a person rose on his skills and merits, not the color of his skin." (Westheider 71). This signifies that the Civil Rights Movement penetrated at the "Equality Level" of fighting as a nation for the United States. This has been portrayed in O'Brien's The Things They Carried between the diverse characters described. Yet another bridge to connect the perception of importance between Tim O'Brien's best friend, historical context of the Civil Rights Movement and racism in the country that these men, as did O'Brien, did not let societies disgrace justice of racism get in the way of the bonds of brotherhood patriotism. Even Herman Graham requests the same notion that The battlefield, however, even with all of its horrors, was a place of relative equality. Blacks and whites formed unique friendships that were rarely seen in the rear - the relatively secure area away from the fighting - or black home in the United States. To be sure, these friendships were certainly brought about by the necessity of survival and mutual dependence." (Graham 45). At a time of war soldiers must put their differences aside for the rate of survival. Although racism back home in the United States was widely spread, oversees in combat it was omitted greatly. It is not a question that Tim O' Brien 4. Is the creal was against racial oppression, he embraced differences from the men around him, as does the players of war in his story. O'Brien relives the wrong doings of past mistakes with his stories. He tells Nomura that "You can't take back a mistake, but you can balance the scale by maybe doing better. And I look at my books that are on the surface about Vietnam as a way of making up for that moral failure years ago." (Nomura). Throughout O'Brien's writings, there are multitude feelings of sadness and repentance through his works, that one day, O'Brien may forgive himself for the time he spent in the jungles of Vietnam. He continues to say that "Although I've tried to right the scales by writing and what I say publicly when I give talks, it just doesn't feel that I've done enough in proportion to three million dead Vietnamese." (Nomura). It is not far fetched to think that the , way that Tim O'Brien wrote The Things They Carried was a way to surround likeness details with his own historical perceptions to lessen the burden O' Brien may feel. Ellis entices that "For those, like O'Brien, who experienced a traumatic event, the need to write about it can be a way to manage, shape, and renegotiate memories that are not easily, or ever, exorcised." (Ellis 56). Even if the reader knows that the intent from O'Brien was for a fictional point of view, the reader should conclude that O'Brien does what is within his power to recapture his memories.The evidence is overwhelming to give into the notion that O'Brien's work shows personal experiences, expressions, imaginative depictions of what the truth may, or may not include. Ramtin Noor-Tehrani Mahini concludes that, Like it or not, O'Brien is a Vietnam War novelist because he adroitly paints the complete war picture in his military life and the life of other American soldiers during this somber part of US history. By blending his Vietnam War experience with known facts about the life and morale of other American soldiers, perhaps O'Brien wants to re-appeal the national conscience about atrocities committed by American troops during the Vietnam War. (Mahini 1283). Any reader can at least agree that Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried holds true to the historical contexts from the reader's perception, as well as O'Brien's recollections of his true memories. Without them, O'Brien's The Things They Carried would only resemble fictional plots, characters, settings, of which it has already been determined that this is not the case.

ANSWER QUESTIONS BELOW WITH JUST ONE BRIEF COHERENT SENTENCE.

Works Cited

Danticat, Edwidge. "A Wall of Fire Rising.”."  Krik? Krak (1996): 51-80.

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