The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien’s

Presented by Dr. Judy Logan

A True War Story

1. Is never moral.

2. What happened can’t be separated

from what seemed to happen.

3. Often can’t be believed.

4. If there is a moral, can’t tease it out.

5. Makes the stomach believe.

6. Is a paradox; truth contradictory.

A True War Story

7. Nothing is ever absolutely true.

8. There’s no point—or if there is one,

it hits you 20 years later.

9. Absolute occurrence is irrelevant.

10.You can tell it’s a real war story

if you just keep telling it.

11.A true war story is never about war.

Smoke Grenade

The Aftermath of Curt Lemon’s Death

The Baby Water Buffalo

Lemon Tree

Curt Lemon’s Death &

Dave Jensen’s Song

that awakens“Tim O’Brien”20 years later

The United States Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets because of their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force tasked with six primary missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue, and counter-terrorism.

“The Greenies”

More Greenies

No Rules, No Safety, No Mercy

“The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”

“She wasn’t dumb,” he’d snap.

“Young, that’s all I said. Like you and me. A girl, that’s the only difference, and I’ll tell you something: it didn’t amount to jack. I mean, when we first got here—all of us—we were real young and innocent, full of romantic bullshit, but we learned pretty damn quick. And so did Mary Anne.” “You don’t believe it? You don’t know human nature. You don’t know Nam.”

(93)

“When she came in through the wire that night, I saw those eyes of hers, I saw how she wasn’t even the same person no more. What’s so impossible about that? She was a girl, that’s all. I mean, if it was a guy, everybody’d say, Hey, no big deal, he got caught up in the Nam shit, he got seduced by the Greenies. See what I mean? You got these blinders on about women. How gentle and peaceful they are. All that crap about how if we had a pussy for president there wouldn’t be no more wars. Pure garbage. You got to get rid of that sexist attitude.”

“The girl joined the zoo. One more animal—end of story.”

(102)

“The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”

“What happened to her, Rat said, was what happened to all of them. You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it’s never the same. A question of degree. Some make it intact, some don’t make it at all.”

“She was lost inside herself.”

(109-10)

“The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”