The Things They Carried

Interesting structure of the novel. It seems to me that Tim O’Brien involves us in a narrative that’s more complex than at first appears. Of course, we all recognize that author and narrator share the same name, and some actual experiences. The author, by his repeated metafictional commentary on the “stories” presented by the narrator, continually draws our attention to this. What is interesting to me is that he also “creates” two audiences. There is an imagined readership of these various stories comprising the novel. But they aren’t us. Rather, we are in a position above them, in a more direct relationship with the “narrator” than the imagined reader will be. That’s made clear in the narrator’s comments about the writing of the Bowker story. See the paragraph on pp. 160-161. This is written to us as confidante – we are aware of “facts” about the story that its imagined readers could not know – he writes of the story of Bowker and Kiowa, saying he thinks this version is better than a previous version of the story, confiding in us that he doesn’t think Bowker would mind that he uses his real name. He continues by telling us the parts of the story that aren’t “factual” – information not given to us as readers of that story, but as, again, confidants. Again, I think this is important, as it places all of the discussions of truth and fiction on a different level than the pure “stories.” Thus, I think a “pure” story like “On the Rainy River” is written with an imagined, general reading audience in mind, while the “discussion” or “philosophical” or “how to write” sections are not written to that same audience, but rather to us, who are thereby raised above the level of the imagined reading public.