individual. Each describes the horrors and traumas of war and gives human voice to the conflict.

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1 War and Isolation in War Novels: Traditional Versus Postmodern Most war novels are fairly similar in the way that they deal with the effects of war on the individual. Each describes the horrors and traumas of war and gives human voice to the conflict. The Things They Carried by Tim O Brien and The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane are no different in that respect. Both novels focus on a main character who has to learn how to face his own respective mortality. However, what really sets these novels apart from each other is the time period in which they were written and the style that was used. While The Red Badge of Courage is what most would consider a traditional war story, The Things They Carried uses a postmodern literary style that brings a whole new depth to war. By looking at the theme of isolation used thoroughly in both novels,!we can see what sets The Things They Carried apart as postmodern by looking at the characters, the writing style, and pivotal scenes from each novel. Both of these war novels feature a protagonist who is unfamiliar with war. Although each has an inkling of what they are about to face, neither has any first-hand experience. Henry, the protagonist of The Red Badge of Courage, is young and has a grand vision in his mind of being a great hero. At the beginning of the book, although Henry is portrayed an arrogant youth, it becomes evident that he feels insecure and alone. This is shown clearly by Crane in the first chapter when he says, He had grown to regard himself merely as a part of a vast blue demonstration. His province was to look out, as far as he could, for his personal comfort. For recreation he could twiddle his thumbs and speculate on the thoughts which must agitate the minds of the generals. (Crane 6). By regarding himself as only part of a larger group, Henry lost his own identity. In the army he could find little comfort and instead was forced to dwell largely in his own thoughts. Crane states multiple times that Henry found it difficult to relate to the other soldiers. At times he found that he could relate to Jim or Wilson but he continued to wish that he could discover another who suspected himself. A sympathetic comparison of mental notes

2 would have been a joy to him. (Crane 11). He wished for companionship; someone who would be able to justify the way that he was feeling. Similarly, many characters in The Things They Carried faced a similar kind of isolation before, during, and after the war. One character s experiences in particular show a postmodern look at isolation. In the chapter Speaking of Courage, Norman Bowker had returned from the war physically, but struggled to return from it mentally. Norman wanted to be able to share his experiences with the people around him, such as his father and his ex-girlfriend, but he cannot bring himself to do it because those around him expect him to have moved on. He drives monotonously around the lake playing out scenarios in his mind that he knows he would never be able to accomplish. He knows that the people in his town would never be able to understand how Kiowa died and how he was not able to save him. This thought seems to haunt him. He is described as feeling isolated in the soft twilight. (O Brien 151). Although he had left the war and the battles physically behind in Vietnam, the war had not left him. While both of these characters experience similar feelings of being isolated, what separates Norman Bowker s story as being postmodern is the way that his isolation is described. While Henry s isolation is laid out plainly for the reader to see, Norman s is a bit more hidden and symbolic. He is described as driving in circles around the lake. This could be read as merely boredom, but if the circular nature of the lake and the drive is taken into account, it could mean many other things entirely. It could be in reference to his growing despair that no one is able to commiserate with him about the war, or his hopelessness, depression, and guilt after Kiowa s death. Or it could be his unwillingness or inability to return to normal life. The true answer, if there even is one, is left unclear, but we do know that he is utterly left alone. Postmodern

3 literature is always up for interpretation, there is never a clear cut answer and that is made even clearer through the writing style. Although both novels tell effective war stories, the way that they relate to the reader is very different. In The Red Badge of Courage, Crane often refers to Henry, not by his given name, but by the impersonal nickname, the youth. This literary tool helps the reader to see Henry s story in an analytical way and adds to the overall feeling that Henry is alone. This kind of cold omniscience that Crane gives his readers helps the reader see beyond the scope of Union and Confederate, and who is right and who is wrong, and instead to see Henry and his companions as human beings fighting a senseless battle. The way that Crane uses this cold omniscience helps the reader to look beyond the events that are occurring and instead see Henry as a frightened and lonely boy. In this way Crane makes Henry relatable to the reader, yet we are always a bit distant. We know what is going in in Henry s head, yet it always feels as if we are merely by-standers. The Things They Carried takes the opposite approach. There are many times throughout the novel that O Brien addresses the reader directly. One example appears in the chapter On the Rainy River. In 1968, when Tim O Brien received his draft notice in the mail, he was a young man that could never see himself fighting in a war. As the fear of going to war weighed on his chest, he had a choice to make: go to Vietnam, or dodge the draft by running to Canada. While recounting his experience of staring at the border and trying to decide what to do, O Brien asks the reader, You re twenty-one years old, you re scared, and there s a hard squeezing pressure in your chest. What would you do? Would you jump? Would you feel pity for yourself? Would you think of your family and your childhood and your dreams and all that you re leaving behind? Would it hurt? Would it feel like dying? Would you cry, as I did? (O Brien 54). By addressing the reader directly it puts the reader in his shoes

4 and makes each of us ask ourselves that very question. What would I do if I was left alone to make this kind of a decision for myself? What would I do? These questions alone bring a kind of moral ambiguity into O Brien s writing that Crane s does not have. An additional postmodern element to O Brien s writing is his use of an unreliable narrator. There are multiple instances throughout the novel where he will claim that a story is true, and yet a few chapters later he will rescind that statement and instead claim that it never happened. While the veracity of his stories do not change their impact, it does lead the reader to wonder what really constitutes as truth. As far as his own novel goes, O Brien does give us some hints. He states, A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing things that men have always done. (O Brien 65). He makes it clear that if one of his stories is moral, it is probably not true. However, any morality in his stories is left completely ambiguous. In the end, we as the reader are the ones who are, in a sense, left isolated by O Brien. In the beginning we are confused by the incongruent timeline and are left to trudge through, hoping that some sense will be gained, and yet by the end we are still left wondering if we missed something. Another aspect of both novels that clearly shows similar themes, and brings further isolation to both the protagonists, uses different styles when both are faced with a corpse. In Henry s case he stares disgustedly at the corpse with ants crawling all over its gray face and is shocked by the disregard that nature has for humanity in general. He even goes as far as comparing humanity to animals stating, in essence, that human lives mean very little. In contrast, while Henry dehumanizes the corpse, O Brien humanizes the dead man. In the chapter The Man I Killed, O Brien begins with the shocking imagery of the dead man: His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole.

5 (O Brien 118). Throughout the chapter O Brien cannot take his eyes off of the dead man in front of him. Between vivid descriptions of the corpse and Kiowa s urgings of Tim, it s a war. The guy wasn t Heidi he had a weapon, right? It s a tough thing for sure, but you got to cut out the staring (O Brien 120) O Brien speculates about what this man did before the war. He imagines that he was good at mathematics and as a child was teased for it. He imagines that he had a wife waiting for him at home who will never see him again. O Brien struggles with the fact that he killed someone, a person, and he cannot take it back. By adding the descriptions of the man s life before his death, O Brien gives a face to the enemy and proves that they were just as human as he and his comrades. Humanizing this man makes this chapter extremely effective because it reminds people everywhere that there are always common people on both sides of a war, people who do not want to be there any more than you do. Although both The Red Badge of Courage and The Things They Carried share similar themes and experiences, ultimately they share different stories. The Things They Carried is clearly postmodern because of its themes and writing, but that does not mean that it is a more or less effective war story than The Red Badge of Courage. Both are able to convey the horrors of war and give readers a small taste of what it is like to have to face battle.

6 Works Cited Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. Konemann, Print. O Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. NY: First Mariner Books, 2009.