The Power of Storytelling

Stories have the power to transform events that would typically destroy a person into something that is manageable. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is an episodic novel that shows the power that storytelling has on the mind. The novel shows many stories about the Vietnam War, mainly focusing on one group of soldiers in the bush. With the power of storytelling, O’Brien illustrates Vietnam as a place where brotherhood is formed, and the soldiers use these stories to distract from the terrible outcomes of war. 

The Vietnam War split the United States in two, the government and the people who supported the government’s goal in eliminating communism and the people who were against the war. Despite this split in the war, O’Brien shows that it also brought people together. The soldiers in the war became so close that they “share the same blood.” This connection between the soldiers shows the brotherhood created through the terrible realities of death and fear in the war. The soldiers not only share the blood, but they also share the stories that help them forget about these terrible realities. When telling the stories, they make death seem like it is not so bad. When Ted Lavender died, the soldiers talked to him as if he were still alive and mimicked what he would have said in death. This storytelling helps the soldiers to cope with the loss of their comrade, and transitions into people making jokes about the people who are killed in action, like Kiowa drowning in shit. Storytelling helps people focus on things other than the war, which leads to optimism. This isn’t limited to making optimism in the war, but it also helps shift the blame of someone dying away from people. This is shown by the death of Kiowa. O’Brien uses a story of Norman Bowker’s life after the war to show his regret of not saving Kiowa. After describing a meaningless life that ends with Bowker hanging himself, O’Brien states that Norman is not responsible for the death of Kiowa, but that he, O’Brien, was responsible for Kiowa’s death. This use of storytelling to shift blame helps the soldiers deal with the war and the PTSD that comes after the war. 

Storytelling can change the way events are viewed and can bring optimism to even the darkest of places. It can impact a person no matter what situation they are in. By telling stories, people can be brought together while being distracted from events that would be tough to deal with and shifting blame away from themselves.