Important events have been going on since the beginning of time. The only way to keep these events and legends alive is through storytelling; whether it be written or told verbally, stories of important events have been passed down to educate the listeners or readers. One example of a story meant to educate its readers is The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the author writes about the lives of the men in Alpha Company in the Vietnam war. He tells stories about his fallen friends, important events, and gives the readers a message he wants convey. The purpose of storytelling is to influence and teach the readers by promoting a message or theme to solve problems in society, and to preserve the lives of those who have passed away.
Besides being entertaining, one of the main reasons a story is told is to promote a message or theme. In the novel The Things They Carried, O’Brien tells many different stories about the Vietnam war as well as before and after the war. One example of a story he tells talks about the physical and emotional “baggage” the men in Vietnam, as well as regular civilians, carry through their whole entire lives. In an interview with Tim O’Brien and a high school, he says the main theme of the novel “The Things They Carried-ultimately has to do with the things we all carry through our lives. I carried Vietnam with me for a long time, the physical wounds and the spiritual burdens and so on, but so do you” (15). O’Brien added this to his novel to get the word out that people can be physically bogged down by not only physical things, but emotional things as well. He also points out that veterans from war are severely changed because of it and even after the war, bad memories and emotional baggage still lingers.
These are messages he supports and one of the roles of a story is to promote ideas like these. Another theme he conveys through a story in his novel is that war is really just a big waste of time and lives. O’Brien talks about the war by saying “blood was being shed for uncertain reasons. I saw no unity of purpose, no consensus on matters of philosophy or history or law” (40). He has a strong opinion on the war so he spreads his opinion by adding it into the book and spreading the message to the readers. He is also showing that America made a mistake and should learn from their bad decisions in history. In John Steinbeck’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he builds on O’Brien’s tactic with “[a writer] is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement” (17). O’Brien writes his novel with “the purpose of improvement” by sending messages to the reader about problems he thinks are important to solve. In “The Things They Carried,” the “faults and failures” of America is the decision to go to the Vietnam War as it was a waste of American lives, time, and money. O’Brien aims to mold society into being better by promoting ideas that will help the world for the greater good.
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Another role of stories is to keep the legends of people who have passed away, still circulating and alive. In O’Brien’s novel “The Things They Carried,” he writes a substantial amount about each of his comrades in Alpha Company. He explains what they were like, what they did in the war, how they dealt with certain situations, where they were from, and important or significant things they have done. One of the main reasons he describes his friends’ lives is because some of them passed away in the war. When they are not alive anymore, they cannot tell people about their achievements, personality, and other things about them. This job is left to storytellers. O’Brien is one of these people and one of his jobs is to not let the legends, achievements and legacies of his comrades die out. He spreads their story in his popular novel to many readers all over the world. It is important for him to do this because otherwise, his fallen friends will be forgotten.
Storytelling has been going on since humans have learned to speak and write. The stories are told for many different reasons. The main role of a story is to be entertaining. Other than this, stories are told because the storyteller wants to promote an idea or position he has on a subject, and spread it to the readers. They are also told to pay homage to people who have passed away and tell about their achievements and legacy. The main role of stories is to make the readers view a message, theme, or person, the same way the author does.
