The Magic of Stories

The Magic of Stories

        I sometimes think this whole world and all of us are just fiction, and some of us are good storytellers. Everyone has their own stories; yet, some are more compelling than others. However, I have found that people tend to beautify and modify their experiences, or somewhat hide the
essential or unfavorable parts. Therefore, there is no absolute truth in any kind of narrative. For example, both Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" and "The Lives of the Dead" lead us to think about the relationship between fiction and reality. In particular, the magic of stories is by mixing fiction and reality in his stories, O'Brien lists those tangible and intangible things the soldiers carried and, by doing this listing and remembering his first puppy love, Linda, O'Brien heals himself and achieves self-salvation.

        Those tangible things the soldiers carried can be removed. Things like weapons, identity cards, knives, rations, water. We are told how much each item weighs down to ounces and even the brand name, as well as some personal items. For example, Martha's letters and photos are Lieutenant Jimmy Cross's sweet burden. Ted Lavender's tranquilizers represent fear. Norman Bowker's diary, Rat Kiley's comic books, Kiowa's Bible, and Henry Dobbins' girlfriend's pantyhose are their prayer for survival. Indeed, these tangible things are the evidence as Kaplan states in his essay, "Tim O'Brien desperately struggles to make his readers believe that what they are reading is true" (Mays 580). Thus, the tangible things indicate the reality of the story.

        Nevertheless, the soldiers also carried the intangible things that included "a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried" (568). The intangible things are emotional and fictional. For instance, they all carried ghosts (569), memories, the land, the sky, the atmosphere (571), cowardice, fear (575), the unknown, mysteries, and their own lives (572). Those tangible things the soldiers carried can be removed. On the contrary, the intangible things can linger in their hearts forever. O'Brien lists these tangible and intangible things the solders carried and, by doing this listing, O'Brien called into question, as Susan Farrell's essay states, "wartime experience as well as larger life experience. In any case, human essence and selfhood remain mysterious" (596). In fact, we all carry intangible things that include the mystery of death.

        The greatest mystery for humans is death. For this reason, death is worthy of respect. O'Brien treats death with fear; therefore, he respects the dead old man "who lay face-up near a pigpen at the center of the village" (73). He does not jokingly shake hands or say something disrespectful. For those who has witnessed death, it is difficult to express the feeling when they see a life disappear in front of them. That kind of shocking scene is unforgettable.

Because the soldiers in the story make fun of the dead body, they don't treat death with respect. As a result, they may be unable to walk away from the maze of their war experiences.

        What else does O'Brien do other than respect death to help him walk away from the maze of the Vietnam war experiences? He writes. He starts practicing "the magic of stories" (83) because he needs miracles (79). He says that "stories can save us" (73). O'Brien's writing style has a sense of solitude that separates him from the war. Those daydreams and trivial details make the illusion that everything seems in the clouds. For example, the pebble sent from Martha in lieutenant Jimmy Cross' mouth, with his tongue turning it, he is able to feel the sea's salinity and humidity. In the meantime, the lieutenant is able to imagine walking along the coastline of New Jersey with Martha by his side (568). Subsequently, O'Brien tells the story about his first love when he was nine years old. He says, "nine years old, but it was real love" (77). He remembers Linda's smile "never went away" (75). Besides, even though Linda was dead, she touched his wrist and said, "Timmy, stop crying" (79). For O'Brien, stories are therapy, a way to understand and make peace with his past. Remembering Linda makes him realize that he hasn't changed at all (78). Writing about Linda gives him strength. He knows that by writing stories, he can bring the dead back to life. Therefore, he has never lost them. He can then heal himself and achieve self-salvation.  

        As a writer, O'Brien's duty is to tell the true story in a fictional way. On the other hand, as a warrior and a participant in the Vietnam war, he needs to respect history and truth. He has to deal with the tension between fiction and reality, and reconcile this contradiction. Hence, he dreams. As O'Brien says: "The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head" (75). Memories will fade, but stories survive. It's not important to figure out if a story is fiction or reality when we read. The important thing is the magic of stories. "Stories can save us" (73). Let's invent our own magic as Tim O'Brien does. Hopefully, like O'Brien, we will be able to heal ourselves and achieve self-salvation through our own stories.

Works Cited

Mays, Kelly J., editor. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 12th ed., New York, London, W.W. Norton & Company, 2016. Tim O'Brien's "The Lives of the Dead" pp. 72-83
Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" pp. 564-577
Steven Kaplan's "The Undying Uncertainty of the Narrator in Tim O'Brien's The Thing They Carried" pp. 577-582
Susan Farrell's "Tim O'Brien and Gender: A Defense of The Things They Carried" pp. 592-597