It's now 1990. I'm forty-three years old, which would've seemed impossible to a fourth grader, and yet when I look at photographs of myself as I was in 1956, I realize that in the important ways I haven't changed at all. I was Timmy then; now I'm Tim. But the essence remains the same. I'm not fooled by the baggy pants or the crew cut or the happy smile—I know my own eyes—and there is no doubt that the Timmy smiling at the camera is the Tim I am now. Inside the body, or beyond the body, there is something absolute and unchanging. The human life is all one thing, like a blade tracing loops on ice: a little kid, a twenty-three-year-old infantry sergeant, a middle-aged writer knowing guilt and sorrow. (236)
In this passage, Tim O’Brien states how the essence of an individual remains the same despite all the different stages he/she experiences in a lifetime. He describes how the Timmy he was in the past still lives in the Tim he is known as today. O’Brien acknowledges his own passing phases, “a little kid, a twenty-three-year-old infantry sergeant, a middle-aged writer knowing guilt and sorrow.” While the appearances, actions, and beliefs of O’Brien differ at these points in his life, he recognizes how all of them have an inner being that has always been present.
I agree with O’Brien on how people have an unchanging essence. There are many examples in the story to challenge this belief, such as the transformation of Marry Anne from the chapter called, “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Rat Kiley’s change from a brave medic to an overwhelmed soldier who has had enough. However, there are also examples that defend O’Brien’s position, like the love Jimmy Cross has for a girl named Martha. Cross loved her since before the war, and even after suffering from the horrors of Vietnam and Martha’s rejection for him, that love for Martha never died. But the problem with using any of these examples is the fact that O’Brien has called The Things They Carried a work of fiction, therefore the “happening-truth” in these examples may or may not have actually occurred. However, the variety of stages in my own life can serve as an example as to why O’Brien’s conviction is indeed true.
I have gone from a giddy child to a silent teen to a nonstop athlete to a faceless poet. Like anyone who has ever lived, there have been times of good and bad. I look different, I speak differently, and I no longer believe in many of the different things I used to, yet I am the same person. My memories are a web of who I was, with its intricate designs coding my existence. That web is still weaving a new pattern, even right now as I type these very words to send out for whoever wishes to see. And while the paths of silk may be completely different in length and shape and direction, in the end, it is still all the same web. As a little kid, I love to draw. As a young teenager with not much to do, I play videogames. As an obsessed athlete, I play whatever sport comes my way. As a seeking poet, I look out at the sleet and see a blurry clarity in its falling ambition. While all these identities are of the past and present, and are so different, they are all one in the essence of who I am and who I’ve always been.
“Inside the body, or beyond the body, there is something absolute and unchanging.” This spirit, soul, or whatever you want to call it, is something people grow and thrive off of. It is a bud of who an individual is and who that individual will always be. Physically and mentally everyone changes, willingly or not, but that inner person in everyone is ever present. If this is not so, then why are there memories? If people could completely change, then they should be able to eliminate their past entirely. But this is impossible because even if one managed to erase his/her identity with the aid of some outside influence, there are still other people in the lives of that individual who can recall their recollection of him/her. As long as there are people to remember who a person was, then the essence of that individual is infinite.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree with your assertion that are unchanging so long as someone else remembers them. As O'Brien states, the dead were kept alive through stories. We're no different. I also agree with the fact that people change in many ways yet still retain a single, absolute identity.
HOWEVER, you mention that, since the novel is fiction, the "truths" may or may not have happened. Does this really require "real" experiences? In Philosophy, we just finished discussing the Ideal Forms that Plato and the like believed in. The premise is that reality is merely a fragment of the true emotion, the Ideal Form. Whether or not the event happened, I feel, is irrelevant. The example you use is exceedingly effective, perhaps more so because it carries the emotion that the reality might not have.
In a way, the quote can be applied to the stories. Even the events that didn't occur, the people who didn't exist, are alive in our own minds. Perhaps all things have an eternal, unchanging element to them. I feel that reality is merely a qualifier that attempts to disregard examples that carry the effect and message in a way that nothing else can. Even if something is fake, the premise still exists. The statement remains unchanged.
You write, "Physically and mentally everyone changes, willingly or not, but that inner person in everyone is ever present. If this is not so, then why are there memories? If people could completely change, then they should be able to eliminate their past entirely."
Is it possible that people could eliminate their past entirely and still remember it? Can we eliminate the past? Or is it the memory or recognition of the past that is eliminated in future generations? How does completely changing correlate to eliminating the past? Can we eliminate the past?
Post a Comment