War Genre and O'Brien

“Genre provides an important frame of reference which helps readers to identify, select, and interpret texts” (Chandler, working with genres) When one thinks of the war genre whether it be a film, novel, or short story; many things come to mind. A battalion of soldiers storming through enemy territory, a group of soldiers that become a family, and the inevitable loss of members of that family.  Chandler also said “And whilst writing within a genre involves making use of certain ‘given’ conventions, every work within a genre also involves the invention of some new elements”.

O’Brien breaks away from the war genre by not discussing the bloody action packed fight and battles, but by talking about the mental and emotional state that he himself went through. In “Spin” by O’Brien from The Things They Carried, O’Brien talks about the other aspects of the war besides the violence. He mentions how they would tell each other joke’s and happy stories to take there minds away form the war. He mentions how Ted lavender took to many tranquilizers and when asked “how’s the war today?” and Lavender responded, “ Mellow, man. We got ourselves a nice mellow war today.”

In “The Man I Killed”, O’Brien talks about the dead man on the road and describing his facial features. He then starts to think about the mans life and mentions how he was born in 2946 in the village of My Khe, where his parents farmed and how his father and uncles fought against the French when they had been in control.  Kiowa said to O’Brien, “Tim its war. The guy wasn’t Heidi—he had a weapon, right? It’s a tough thing, or sure, but you got to cut out that staring.” Kiowa gives Tim time to take it all in and then covers the body with a poncho.

In “Good Form”, O’Brien talks about how he made the story up and that he was the one who had killed the man.  He then mentions how is daughter asked him if he had killed anyone, and he said he can honestly say, “Of course not.” Or he can honestly say “yes.”