Demetrius Walters
Phil Quam
English 112(L)
19 October 2014
Car Crash While Hitchhiking
And
The Things They Carried
Essay #1
Author’s write stories to enlighten the readers; or to impose suspension, actions or to leave you wondering towards the end of the story. Denis Johnson and Tim O’Brien are two writers who impose this type of suspense to their readers. The Things They Carried and Car Crash While Hitchhiking are two particular stories that leave that impression to the readers. The narrator puts different thoughts into play from point of view, theme, plot and tone. This paper will cover the point of view and theme of the two stories.
Tim O’Brien “The Things They Carried” was written from the third person point of view, with an omniscient narrative stance. The narrator seems to know everything that is going on with all the soldiers such as what each one likes to carry on each mission. ”Henry Dobbins carry extra rations because he is big”, Dave Jensen takes tooth brush, dental floss and bars of soap. (O’Brien). Psychic distance seems to be close because the narrator talks about some of the characters and what they are thinking or doing while not directly in contact with the person while it is happening. “What they carried was partly a function rank, partly of field specialty”. (O’Brien).
The theme of the of the story does not necessary revolve around the physical things that they had to carry around as per SOP, “P-38 Can opener, pocket knives, heat tabs, dogs tags, mosquito repellant, C ration, two or three canteens of water; all weighting between fifteen to twenty pounds” (O’Brien). The narrator continues talking about personal things that they carry also like “David Jensen carry three pair of socks and a can of Dr. Scholl’s foot powder; Ted Lavender carried tranquilizers because he was scared; Rat Riley carried comic books” (O’Brien). All the physical materials that was needed for the mission did weight up to certain pounds that a physical body could carry, but the weight of the psychological emotion that these people was caring could and did weight up to more than that of the physical weight that they would carry with them. This was a lot of internal weights that they would carry for the rest of their life and there in their minds nothing could come close to that. “Kiowa distrust of the white man; Lt. Cross caring of the photos of Martha. To see someone die right in front of you has an every lasting memory; therefore creating memories and emotions that would never leave you; “Kiowa, who watch it happen, said it was like watching a rock fall”.(O’Brien). Lt. Cross carried the most because he was the one responsible for the deaths. His actions prior to the death of Lavender could have been better choices for everyone like” accepting blame for what had happen to Lavender, imposing strict field discipline” (O’Brien).
Denis Johnson “Car Crash While Hitchhiking” was written from a first person point of view. The author seems to be very close to the action. “I knew a certain Oldsmobile would stop for me, and by the sweet voices of the family inside it, I knew that we’d have an accident in the storm” (D. Johnson). Temporal distance seem to be removed from the story. The character of (fuckhead) seems to be an unreliable character because of his use of drugs. “A salesman who shared his liquor; Traveling salesman who feed me pills” (Johnson). All of these situations were before he got into the Oldsmobile with the family. Before the car crash, when fuckhead got out of the Volkswagen with the college man, he was high of from the hash. Once inside of the Vehicle with the family, all he could remember was “I deemed I was looking right through my eyelids” (D. Johnson). And even after the accident, fuckhead was with the truck driver; fuckhead walked by the wreckage and said to himself,” I mean that he could not tell me what he was dreaming, and I couldn’t tell him what was real” (D. Johnson).
The theme is not centered on the car crash; but more of the feelings actions and thoughts that fuckhead is having and reacting to. For example when in Kansas City, the salesman starts talking about his wife and kids that he loved so much. He speaks about the girlfriend that he had on the side briefly. All that fuckhead emotions could conger was “feeling jiltered and sad” (Johnson). Another example was when he first got into the Oldsmobile; he did not care if he lived or died; “I just wanted to sleep,” (Johnson). To hear the reactions when the wife was told that her husband was dead showed a spark or emotion feeling that fuckhead had not encountered. “She shriek as I imaged an eagle would shriek”, (D. Johnson). To see someone with so much emotional freedom gave him hope.
Everybody deals with situations differently. Depending on you emotional input or output of the situation, everyone reacts differently. To see the emotional reaction in The Things They Carried is more about not the physical things but the emotional burden and how you deal with it personally. Car Crash While Hitchhiking shows what a person who has no ideal as to how he/she want to live their life and what measures that they will go through not to have that emotion connection. At the end of the day we are all human equipped with emotions, how do you deal with it?