Representing Truth Through Fiction: The Portrayal of Vietnam in The Things They Carried and Good Morning Vietnam
Representing Truth Through Fiction:
The Portrayal of Vietnam in The Things They Carried and Good Morning Vietnam
Shi’aan Assynt
IB Higher Level English Language A
January 18, 2009
Most veterans of the Vietnam War will remember a land that was radically different from what they knew and were used to, a country that was hot and humid, full of diseases and traps that seemed to advantage the enemy while crippling the soldiers. The territory was unfamiliar and treacherous, as rain led to large mud patches and landslides and the jungle was easy to get lost in. The overwhelming heat and humidity was a perfect climate for disease and sunstroke to develop, afflictions that affected many soldiers. Vietnam was a hostile environment for the young American soldiers that went to fight in it, and this hostility is well portrayed in Tim O’Brien’s collection of short stories, The Things They Carried, while it is not as well displayed in the famous film “Good Morning Vietnam”.
In the book The Things They Carried, the reader follows a platoon of soldiers as they venture through Vietnam in search of the Vietcong. As we read, we see that the soldiers are frequently confronted by the hostile land and have to be on their guard all the time to avoid getting injured or separated from the rest of the group. The book works quite well to give the reader an impression of the uncertain conditions of Vietnam, and translates a very real situation well into a more fictional context. In particular, the story “Speaking of Courage” shows a metaphor for the uncertain conditions and terrain of Vietnam. In this story, one of the characters, a young Native American soldier by the name of Kiowa, drowns in a field of mud and excrement. At the start of the story, it is explained that the field seems solid enough, though muddy because of the unending rain. However, as the rain goes on and the platoon advances on the field to find a place to set up camp, the field becomes increasingly treacherous and when bombs start falling around the soldiers and their settlement, the terrain is extremely dangerous, even though it originally seemed somewhat safe and stable.