"Twenty years. A lot like yesterday, a lot like never" (178).
In the chapter "Field Trip" in The Things They Carried, O'Brien returns to the site of Kiowa's death with his 10 year old daughter Kathleen. Each time he recollects his experiences in the "shit field" and in Vietnam, he is not "remembering" but rather feels that his memories provoke a "re-happening." However, the location that haunts his memories is unrecognizable twenty years later. The field that was once capable of swallowing his best friend, his ambition, his pride, and the person he used to be, was now just an ordinary field glistening in the sun with his daughter's laughter filling the air instead of the rancid smell. The significance of his return to the field demonstrates how, even to a veteran, the atrocities of war are often unfathomable.
I am really glad you wrote your post about "Field Trip," I found this chapter so interesting. It was sad to read about how different O'Brien's memory was so different than real life. This chapter is significant because revisiting the site is a way for him to move on from his harsh past. Like you said, Kathleen had no draw to the place so it was hard to read how unimportant the trip was to her and how much it meant to her father. This chapter made me sympathize with the children of war veterans too. I appreciated your viewpoints as well!
ReplyDeleteIn reading your post I thought about the aspect of time--how it is distorted for many of these soldiers at war and also once they return home as they battle with ptsd and the struggle to reassimilate into society. O'Brien, the character, even says in the chapter "Field Trip", "Twenty years. A lot like yesterday, a lot like never. In a way, maybe, I'd gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I'd mostly worked my way out". O'Brien lost his sense of time since loosing Kiowa in that field and coming back twenty years later was almost an awakening to what was happening. Norman Bowker experiences this same type of loss of time after the loss of Kiowa, as well as a loss of self and place in the world. He says, "there;s no place to go...My life I mean. Its almost like I got killed over in Nam..that night when Kiowa got wasted, I sort of sank down into the sewage with him... Feels like I'm still in deep shit". Both Bowker and O'Brien, feel that they had lost something of themselves when Kiowa dies, almost as if they died too, and it feels as if they are still there in the moment stuck in the deep mud and shit of that field in Nam that O'Brien goes back to visit.
DeleteSteph, great post. I feel as if "Field Trip" encapsulates the lasting mental damage that war can have on the soldiers. Kathleen said to O'Brien, "Some dumb things happen a long time ago and you can't ever forget it. That's weird" (183). To me, this comment is rather reflective of O'Brien's own thoughts. He wants to forget, and sometimes, he even does. But every once in a while, the nightmares come back, the thoughts of "could I have saved him?" and these are what stick with O'Brien forever. Though the field is totally different and all signs of war are gone, the psychological damage is as fresh as ever.
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