O'Brien's Refreshing Perspective to War Genre.

O’Brien’s work The Things They Carried, deals with the “war genre” in an inspiring new light. Whether it’s the intimate portrayal of how life was like to be a G.I or the novels progressive perspective the genre in itself has more of a drama then anything. O’Brien presents the story from a first person view-point, though adhering to many war genre characteristics he describes the on-goings of war in a light hearted almost kindly way. Instead of marking all of those he comes across in this native country as enemies, O’Brien maintains a cordial almost innocent aura among them.

Evidence of this can be seen in all three of the readings chapters, one example can be found in “Spin”, “For instance, I remember a little boy with a plastic leg. I remember how he hopped over to Azar and asked for a chocolate bar- ‘GI number one,’ the kid said- and Azar laughed and handed over the chocolate”. The story of Poppa-san, a civilian in the war torn country who helps the protagonist get through a mine infested field. Also maintains O’Brien’s resistance towards creating another routine, opinion and reaction that is associated with the war genre. This being that every man, woman and child met when you’re a soldier on tour is automatically an enemy, never a friend.

The most critical of O’Brien’s departure from a traditional war genre story is found in “The Man I Killed” and “Good Form”. Here he portrays the reaction of a soldier to a victim, so much so, he creates a mock future for the man. One in which he marries and dies much the same way he had at that present moment, but done so after spending years experiencing life’s lessons. While in “Good Form” he reveals that he was not the man who killed the man physically, but emotionally he had alludes to have, for merely being present at his death. This shows O’Brien’s underlying understanding of what one expects when reading a war genre piece and refreshes it so much so it can be associated to a drama.