Hallie's Project

Many would say that it is only through the passing of time that we can begin to understand history. In the heat of the moment, it is nearly impossible to have any sort of clear perspective on a given situation. The Vietnam War is no exception. This conflict polarized America in many ways, hawks vs. doves, government vs. citizens, good vs. evil. During this time period, the crisis in Vietnam was a very pressing matter, leading individuals to become firmly and vocally entrenched in their political and ideological principles. Although these boundaries may have seemed clear cut during the war, looking back thirty years later, these distinctions seem less absolute.

Today we are far enough removed from this situation to look at it more objectively through perspectives that were never before available. Mainstream movies, television and literature on the Vietnam War are now widespread, shedding new light on this conflict. Since literature is in many ways a reflection of society at a given time, we see that literature written during the heat of the war reflects the polarized nature of our society. As time passes, the literature continues to mirror the feelings of society and is much more ambiguous in nature. Although many feelings about this controversial war will never be resolved, it is clear that through the passage of time our overall perspective has become less severe and judgmental in nature. This change is reflected in the literature written on Vietnam in the last thirty years.

Literature gives us insight into a particular situation that is otherwise not possible. To understand a situation, you must look at it from many different angles which literature provides. Because Vietnam is inherently contradictory, we must think beyond the historical accounts found in textbooks to other forms of expression that can open the door to understanding the situation. Don Ringnalda comments that “in military operations, there was no front, no rear, no sense of progression; poof- there goes the structure of the conventional narrative,” suggesting that because of the nature of Vietnam, traditional media of understanding were obsolete (Ringnalda 34).

Through the analysis of Sticks and Bones by David Rabe, Dispatches by Michael Herr, and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, we can see that the passage of time has affected the perspectives of these authors. It is important to note that while time may have provided us with the ability to see beyond what were once limited visions, it has in no way led us to “forget war too quickly or remember it too simplistically”(Ringnalda 90), which in Ringnalda’s phrase, O’Brien states as one of his biggest fears. These three works, respectively published in 1969, 1980 and 1990, help us to gauge how the passage of time has affected our feelings about the Vietnam War.

Before a successful analysis of specific literature is possible, it is necessary to understand a few basic principles of literature on Vietnam. The prologue that Larry Heinemann wrote for The United States and Viet Nam from War to Peace asserts that writing on Vietnam takes place in three movements. Before the first stage, which starts in 1975, most of the writing is categorized by Heinemann as “political and historical reportage” (Slabey 13). Heinemann concludes that this is the result of the social situation during this time period: “The raw ambivalence of most Americans was at its most touchy extreme” (Slabey 13).

The first movement of literature begins around 1975 with what Heinemann describes as “true war stories” (Slabey 14). This is the result of soldiers trying to validate their war experience, possibly looking for a catharsis. There is a noticeable lack of literature from the Vietnamese perspective during this stage. The second movement is still a concentration on the American experience, but Heinemann sees more in depth as an “exploration of the inevitable reverberations of the war” (Slabey 14). The third movement is characterized by a concentration on contemporary Viet Nam, which is linked with the lifting of the US trade embargo in 1994. This is followed by an increase in tourist travel to Viet Nam, specifically by veterans of the war.

By travelling to Viet Nam a few decades after the war, many like myself fully realized and appreciated Viet Nam as a country and an ancient culture instead of just a war. The word “Vietnam” signifies a war, or a state of mind,

to most Americans, even today. It is amazing to see that there is so much beyond this pretext of war. Many veterans and tourists are surprised by the very warm reception that Americans receive from the Vietnamese. Some veterans remarked that they received a warmer welcome in Viet Nam than they did when they returned to America from the war.

This is explained by Heinemann as an ability that the Vietnamese possess to separate the American government from the American people (Slabey 13). This shows remarkable perspective on their part. Returning to the country for pleasure opened both the tourist and the veteran to the rich culture that Viet Nam has to offer. This shifted the focus of literature somewhat towards issues in contemporary Viet Nam. Heinemann aptly says “American literature has turned from the blunt and frank self-examination to the broader human issues” (Slabey 15).

According to Eric James Schroeder, “The playwright becomes more important than the historian, for in no other war of our history was the private word more important than the public pronouncement” (Schroeder 212). Beginning with David Rabe’s Sticks and Bones , published in 1969, we see what can certainly be called a direct confrontation on issues surrounding Vietnam, particularly the return of soldiers. Being published so early in relation to other works on Vietnam can be attributed to both his age at the time, which at twenty-five was somewhat older than the average soldier at nineteen, and the format of his work as a play. He was both ready to write shortly after returning from Vietnam and to work within theater which was more receptive to work on Vietnam than literature at the time (Schroeder 213).

Sticks and Bones was produced for the first time in 1972, which is considerably earlier than most of the literature on Vietnam. It is curious that audiences would be more receptive to being visually confronted with issues of Vietnam rather than reading about them. Perhaps this can be explained by the more progressive nature of theater, as publishers tend to be much more conservative than producers.

Rabe tells Schroeder in his interview: “I felt at the time that his [David’s] rage and the rage of a lot of vets was such that they couldn’t just come back and explain it; you had to make an experience of it somehow” (Schroeder 208). Rabe defines in this quotation why he feels that a play was more appropriate for the expression of his feelings which mirrored the feelings of many vets. Rabe then shows that rage is an initial reaction to returning home, although this rage occurs on many levels and is directed in many ways. Perhaps then rage is Rabe’s strong point, for it is clearly the focus of his writing immediately after returning. It works to his advantage that he wrote so quickly, not letting time numb some of the initial emotion. Rabe’s play is in many ways written in the heat of the moment then, both personally and in the larger social setting.

Rabe’s work is a short-term project in that he did not spend years editing; therefore it can be said that it is very literally a product of its time. Although Rabe had time to reflect on his personal experiences in Vietnam, both he and the rest of the country did not have the ability to distance themselves from the crisis and look at the situation from a larger perspective. This works to Rabe’s advantage in his play in that the characters and situations seem urgent in nature. This is important to the understanding of the emotions of the vet that Rabe is portraying. The political contradictions, the confused responses of others, the “don’t ask don’t tell” nature of the family are all pressing matters for the vet who has just returned. This play and its message would not be effective without the rage, which may not be present at a later date, which is why it is essential that this play be published so early in the game.

David, as the recently returned veteran, has to deal not only with his own issues, but those of his family members. Ozzie, his father, displays the most obvious incidents of rage in the play. It is important that Rabe discusses the issue of returning home immediately because he is able to capture the immediate reaction of the war while it is occurring. In one particular scene, the rage and frustration that Rabe strives to capture is manifested in Ozzie who lashes out at David. “You did what you did and I was no part of it…I’m tired of hearing you, Dave. You understand that? I’m tired f hearing you and your crybaby voice and your crybaby stories. And your crybaby slobbering and your- (And his voice is possessed with astonished loathing.) LOOK…AT…HIM! YOU MAKE ME WANT TO VOMIT!” (Rabe 137) This quotation is clearly saturated with the immediate rage of the war. If these characters, and Rabe himself, had time to reflect, the product would not be the same. Rabe brings the needed emotions to this play, showing his audience what the immediate effects of the war were. It is important to have this record as many people, including myself, did not live through this period in time.

In his interview with Rabe, Schroeder makes a link between Sticks and Bones and Michael Herr’s Dispatches, categorizing both works as “cultural memory map[s]” (Schroeder 204). Rabe goes on to modify this statement by categorizing their work as “men and their responses” (Schroeder 204), making it clear that it is the personal, individual stories that are the most effective, especially in this genre.

Dispatches is more personal than Sticks and Bones , simply because the author is narrating events that he witnessed. Herr went to Vietnam as a journalist with the intention to observe and write about what he saw. This automatically gives him a different perspective from many of the other veterans who wrote about the war in that he has a certain distance from most of the events that he discusses. Although as Schroder notes, “the viewpoint of the book remains very immediate…it propels the reader right into the heart of the events described”(Schroeder 35), Herr wrote most of the book after he returned from Vietnam and was not finished or published until almost a decade had passed.

Dispatches is often praised for having a “human perspective”(Schroeder 36) that is separate from many of the issues of Vietnam. Schroeder takes this concept further when he says “It [ Dispatches ] tries to create a perspective which captures the experience, sympathizes with the participants, and yet allows the reader to see the necessity of walking away from it in the end”(Schroeder 36). Through this passage, we see that Herr is less concerned with the conceptual side of the war and more concerned with the broad human issues. Although politics are necessarily a part of his writing, they take a back seat to the more pressing matters of how this situation affected those involved. Dispatches is a good example of Heinemann’s second movement of literature, as it begins to examine the effects of the war as opposed to just reporting it as an experience. This change marks a significant development in the literature on Vietnam in general. Dispatches is an important link between Rabe’s returning veteran and O’Brien’s in-depth examination of larger moral issues. Although all of these works deal with much of the same subject matter, the difference is in how they communicate these issues changes over the twenty years that their work is published.

To understand Dispatches, it is important to look at Herr’s perspective, that of reflecting on events that happened in the recent past. “I’d say that I was trying to write about it and didn’t want to dissipate it. But before you could dissipate it you had to locate it, Plant you now, dig you later: information printed on the eye, stored in the brain, coded over skin and transmitted by blood, maybe what they meant by ‘blood consciousness’”(Herr, 251). It was essential for Herr to reflect on the events that he saw in Vietnam to write about them. Because he wrote both while in Vietnam and when he got back, he did not have a great deal of time to think about his material. Often the stories that he writes have both the immediacy of an event currently taking place and the perspective of a removed writer. This combination is unique to Herr because of his occupation as a journalist and a creative writer. He is able to fuse these two elements together to create his own sort of genre.

Maria S. Bonn comments that the genre of literature on Vietnam had changed considerably in the last decade from “a specific historical event to a general cultural metaphor”(Slabey 209). We have a need to understand what this war means in the larger sense of our society, and literature is helping to do this. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien was published in 1990 and has received a great deal of critical praise since then. There seems to be a sort of consensus among critics that O’Brien does much more than tell stories about Vietnam from a soldier’s point of view. He uses Vietnam as a point of departure to deal with moral issues. O’Brien emphasizes the importance of looking at Vietnam in the context of other issues in society, not simply as an isolated event.

Through his use of fictitious people, places, and events, O’Brien takes the emphasis away from the plot and makes the reader think more closely about the issues that the story raises. The most important concept that O’Brien challenges in his writing is truth: “In any war story, but especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen”(O’Brien 71). He uses what feels right or sounds right in order to convey how an event appeared to him, truth aside. It is more important to understand the overall message that a story provides rather than harping on individual details that are simply meant to add to the larger message. Schroeder comments that O’Brien “use[s] memory but additionally uses[s] imagination to compress and intensify experience”(Schroeder 141).

To further challenge his reader’s sense of truth O’Brien states “A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than truth” (O’Brien 83). What O’Brien is getting at is the notion that nothing is ever what it seems. Cut-and-dried facts are often not enough to understand a situation; there is something beyond this that we must explore, both in literature on Vietnam and in general.

The shift that O’Brien makes in the structure of his literature is fundamental in showing the transition from stories about Vietnam to literature that looks within these stories to the larger questions of morality and humanity. By 1990, the American population was ready to confront deeper issues within the context of the Vietnam War. Although some of O’Brien’s short stories were published earlier, the compilation and final editing did not take place until the Vietnam conflict had technically been over for almost fifteen years. Although the public may have been receptive to O’Brien’s factual accounts of war well before 1990, people were not ready to explore the long-term implications of war.

The Things They Carried is a product of years of reflection. While in Vietnam, O’Brien does not speak of aspirations to write about his experiences. He does discuss his need to write upon his return: “Ever since my return I had been talking about [Vietnam] virtually non-stop through my writing. Telling stories seemed a natural, inevitable process, like clearing the throat. Partly catharsis, partly communication, it was a way of grabbing people by the shirt and explaining exactly what had happened to me, how I’d allowed myself to get dragged into a wrong war, all the mistakes I had made, all the terrible things I had seen and done.” (O’Brien 158) O’Brien has the need to reflect on his experience and mold a story according to the message that he intends for his audience. He does not take events in the exact way that they happened merely to tell a fact-based story, but rather uses those incidents as the basis for his purpose. O’Brien is only able to accomplish this involved process through lengthy reflection.

If we believe Bonn’s statement that the Vietnam War “can be recognized and constructed as a quintessential postmodern moment”(Slabey 210), we must recognize that Vietnam is a part of all of us and all of our experiences. I would argue that most people were not, and possibly still are not, able to come to terms with the fact that we are all responsible for what happened in Vietnam. Through the medium of literature we can understand these ideas by the examination of stories that relate to our own lives. Without the stories that we can relate to, it is hard to see how situations such as Vietnam relate to the everyday person. Through literature we can make this connection and begin to look at these issues in society.

Bonn poses this important question: “To what political, social, and literary uses do we wish to put our narratives of the war?”(Slabey 208). I believe that this question is relevant even today as we look to Vietnam and wonder what lessons we have to learn. Hopefully we can take the perspective that thirty years of reflection has afforded and apply it to our current situation in America. Philip H. Melling optimistically declares about veterans, my sincerest hope for all Americans that “many of them [Vietnam Veterans] are keen to set their experience in a wider historical context, establishing connections between what they have suffered in the war and other casualties in American history”(Melling 113).

Works Cited

Herr, Michael. Dispatches . New York: Vintage International, 1968.

Melley, Philip H. Vietnam in American Literature . Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990.

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried . New York: Broadway Books, 1990.

Rabe, David. Sticks and Bones . New York: Grove Press, 1969.

Ringnalda, Don. Fighting and Writing the Vietnam War . Jackson, MI: University Press of

Mississippi, 1994.

Schroeder, Eric James. Vietnam, We’ve All Been There . Westport, CT: Praeger

Publishers, 1992.

Slabey, Robert M., ed. The United State and Viet Nam from War to Peace . Jefferson,

NC: McFarland and Company, Inc., 1996.