War evokes many different emotions for some soldiers. Some are drafted and demanded to serve, others volunteer their lives for the sake of not being titled as cowards. Some get to fight another day, some don’t, others get captured and become prisoners or hostages. But one thing is certain, for those who have experienced war know first hand that it has the power to change you as a person. In the short stories “Guests of the Nation” and “The Things They Carried,” authors Frank O’Connor and Tim O’Brien share the same central idea of the horrible effects of war.
Both stories are about a young male soldier who faces the true reality of war as well as the emotional and impacts these experiences leave with them. Though the stories depict men from different nationalities, personalities, and loyalties. The conflicts are engraved within, as well as the enemy’s they engage, so are the unrelatable time and location. But they both share the profound and unshakable truth: War is oppressive as hell. In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” the author introduces a young man, Jimmy Cross, a commander of an alpha company during the Vietnam war.
The essential theme of the story is titled in the story “The Things They Carried,” the author uses the method of listing the many tangible and intangible ‘things’ the soldiers carry with them. O’Brien lists the standard field equipment, personal items the soldiers carry, as well the emotional baggage they carry. Such as cowardice, guilt, and pity. In addition, the author impresses upon the reader by illustrating the sheer heaviness the soldiers carry by telling us how many ounces each item weighs. Also, Jimmy Cross is found to be distracted by Martha, a young college girl who writes letters to Jimmy while he’s deployed.
Martha causes Jimmy to be distracted in the field of duty, this distraction and its neglect of the constant vigilance needed in Vietnam ultimately leads to the death of Ted Lavender, a scared soldier. In Frank O’Connor’s “Guest of a Nation” the author introduces introduces us to Bonaparte, the narrator. The essential theme of story is, the conflict between doing what you’re ordered to do and doing what you think is right. In sections one through three, the interchange between Donovan and Bonaparte is about duty.
They both discuss that it’s their duty to kill the prisoners that they have captured, “If they shoot our prisoners we’ll shoot theirs, and serve them right” (O’Connor 632). In section four, the transition of humanitarianism comes into play, Donovan and Bonaparte So I lay there half the night, and thought and thought, and picturing myself and young Noble trying to prevent the Brigade from shooting ‘Hawkins and Belcher sent a cold sweat out through me. Stylistically, Tim O’Brien and Frank O’Connor seem very different in dialect and in sentence structure.
However, interestingly, they use these rather different styles for similar ends: both authors seem to share the implementation of Irony (Prinsky). In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’brien uses heavy irony. For example, Ted Lavender, the soldier who is weighed down by extra ammunition and sheer panic, is the the only American to die (McCarthy). Also, Jimmy Cross leaves behind his love for Martha, choosing instead to bear the responsibility and guilt for a death that could be not have been foreseen. In the quote “He felt shame. He hated himself.
He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war. ” (O’Brien 606). The quote illustrates the Also, in “Guests Of The Nation,” the author, Frank O’Connor implements irony by repeating the word “chum,” in fact he repeats it seventeen times throughout the story. It’s ironic because it underlines the failure of friendship in the plot, in the quote “Hawkins wanted to know, and we said yes. He laughed. But why should Nobel want to shoot him?
Why should we want to shoot him? What had he done to us? Weren’t we chums” shows friendship is indeed a failure in the story (O’Connor 631). Frank O’Connor also makes another ironic approach to the story by describing the timbre of belcher’s speech, “peaceful,” it ironically contrasts with the reason the British soldiers were kept captive, as well as their fate (Prinsky). In the quote “‘I wouldn’t, not if I was to be shot twenty times over; he’s my chum. And Belcher wouldn’t – isn’t that right, Belcher? ‘ ‘That’s right, chum,’ says Belcher peaceably” (O’Connor 632).
Both authors share the similarity of making irony present in the stories. In contrast, both stories use different styles and techniques. In “The Things they Carried,” Tim O’Brien does not tell the story in the traditional chronological order. Instead he chooses to randomly observe one of the characters after another alternates with a deliberate litany of weights and masses, the things they carried (McCarthy). O’Briens style is fragmentary, for example, “… your buddies picked you up and lifted you into the chopper that would roar and dip its nose and carry you off to the world” (O’Brien 608).
Also, his language is flat and understated, except when it’s salted with slang, military jargon, and military acronyms. In the quote, “By necessity, and because it was SOP, they all carried steel helmets that weighed five pound” we can see that O’Brien throws in military jargon. In addition, In Frank O’Connor’s “Guests Of The Nation,” he uses a different style of writing. Instead of randomly observing a character like O’Brien, he chooses to write the story in chronological order.
Also, his language is different too, he uses repetition of the two words “Chum. Both words indicating the importance of friendship or sympathy, ultimately adding more into the use of irony. Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” and Frank O’Connor’s “Guests Of The Nation” both share the similarities of the horrible effects of war. In contrast, both authors use different styles and techniques to write their stories. Tim O’Brien uses the method of listing the items the soldiers carry, Frank O’Connor writes his story chronologically unlike O’Brien, also, his story is irony heavy.
