Veterans in Ruins: The Soldier’s Impossible Homecoming in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried
The notion of homecoming is the focal point of Tim O’Brien’s short story “Speaking of Courage,” which presents an irreconcilable scission between the present and the soldier’s past self and life, before the war. This cleavage is mainly embodied in the landscape of the story: the city that was once f...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Association Française d'Etudes Américaines
2022-05-01
|
| Series: | Transatlantica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/19115 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832580813415251968 |
|---|---|
| author | Lucie Jammes |
| author_facet | Lucie Jammes |
| author_sort | Lucie Jammes |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The notion of homecoming is the focal point of Tim O’Brien’s short story “Speaking of Courage,” which presents an irreconcilable scission between the present and the soldier’s past self and life, before the war. This cleavage is mainly embodied in the landscape of the story: the city that was once familiar seems remote after his homecoming. The way in which the protagonist looks at his hometown while driving around the lake that constitutes its center point allows the gradual (re)appearance of Vietnam landscapes and events in the descriptions, until memories from the past and visions of the present superimpose completely—thereby blurring the boundaries between war and peace, between suburban America and Vietnam battlegrounds. The bedimming of differences between the structural polarities of the “here” and the “elsewhere” enables the emergence of paradoxical esthetics based on the notions of conflation and reversal, which thwart the prospect of ever returning home by rendering the very notion of return nonsensical and unachievable. Through writing, O’Brien thus puts into question the very possibility and completeness of the soldier’s homecoming by collapsing together different spatiotemporal realities. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2f4b5b88d4fb4162b6ebe0b0d23a4fe3 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1765-2766 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Association Française d'Etudes Américaines |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Transatlantica |
| spelling | doaj-art-2f4b5b88d4fb4162b6ebe0b0d23a4fe32025-01-30T10:43:18ZengAssociation Française d'Etudes AméricainesTransatlantica1765-27662022-05-01110.4000/transatlantica.19115Veterans in Ruins: The Soldier’s Impossible Homecoming in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They CarriedLucie JammesThe notion of homecoming is the focal point of Tim O’Brien’s short story “Speaking of Courage,” which presents an irreconcilable scission between the present and the soldier’s past self and life, before the war. This cleavage is mainly embodied in the landscape of the story: the city that was once familiar seems remote after his homecoming. The way in which the protagonist looks at his hometown while driving around the lake that constitutes its center point allows the gradual (re)appearance of Vietnam landscapes and events in the descriptions, until memories from the past and visions of the present superimpose completely—thereby blurring the boundaries between war and peace, between suburban America and Vietnam battlegrounds. The bedimming of differences between the structural polarities of the “here” and the “elsewhere” enables the emergence of paradoxical esthetics based on the notions of conflation and reversal, which thwart the prospect of ever returning home by rendering the very notion of return nonsensical and unachievable. Through writing, O’Brien thus puts into question the very possibility and completeness of the soldier’s homecoming by collapsing together different spatiotemporal realities.https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/19115memorywarshort storiesTim O’Brientestimonyhomecoming |
| spellingShingle | Lucie Jammes Veterans in Ruins: The Soldier’s Impossible Homecoming in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried Transatlantica memory war short stories Tim O’Brien testimony homecoming |
| title | Veterans in Ruins: The Soldier’s Impossible Homecoming in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried |
| title_full | Veterans in Ruins: The Soldier’s Impossible Homecoming in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried |
| title_fullStr | Veterans in Ruins: The Soldier’s Impossible Homecoming in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried |
| title_full_unstemmed | Veterans in Ruins: The Soldier’s Impossible Homecoming in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried |
| title_short | Veterans in Ruins: The Soldier’s Impossible Homecoming in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried |
| title_sort | veterans in ruins the soldier s impossible homecoming in tim o brien s the things they carried |
| topic | memory war short stories Tim O’Brien testimony homecoming |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/19115 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT luciejammes veteransinruinsthesoldiersimpossiblehomecomingintimobriensthethingstheycarried |