Interpretation of the theme of dreams by Sigmund Freud

They Carried Truth When people dream, their minds take real-life experiences and manipulate them until they transform into stories that are far removed from the reality in which they’re based. Sigmund Freud touches on this idea in his essay “On Dreams”, where he reveals the purpose behind dreams is to reveal the suppressed feelings of the dreamer.

Thoughts and desires that lurk in the subconscious mind are likely to surface within a dream. Freud goes on to explain that a dream “is a sort of substitution for those emotional and intellectual trains of thought” that are suppressed while the dreamer is awake (Freud 7). While Freud’s essay focused solely on dreams, it’s clear that this theory can be applied to the storytelling process as well. When an individual recalls memories from his past to share a story, it is likely he mirrors a similar set of steps that the brain naturally follows while creating a dream. In the end, the story often becomes a fictitious representation of reality exaggerated to convey subconscious emotion and feeling rather than hard truth. Freud’s theories on dream formation can be heavily parallel to Tim O’Brien’s storytelling techniques used in “The Things They Carried”. Similar to the formation of dreams, some of O’Brien’s stories experience an interpretive revision in order to present the reader with a connected and logical plot, while others do not.

An example of this would be the story “The Dentist”. The plot follows a linear path with a conflict and resolution where readers are able to follow it easily and be left with little to no questions. However, other stories are presented fragmented and vivid, where much like a dream, can bring confusion to the reader. However, once it is understood, it can lead to deep meanings and thoughtful conclusions.The novel “The Things They Carried” is presented as a whole in a nonlinear and fragmented way that forces readers to question the reality of events from various perspectives and create their own conclusions based on the puzzle pieces they’re given. This is an excellent tool in O’Brien’s overall theme of confusion and uncertainty in truth. A great example would be the character Jimmy Cross. We learn about the unrequited love between him and a woman back in the states.

In his longing, we see him spending his time imagining details about the girl- particularly her virginity. While we are told “she was a virgin” this statement is almost immediately redacted and brought into questioning by the follow-up statement “he was almost sure” (4). This small uncertainty forces the readers to question the reality of the text. While readers are already confused between what is reality and what is embellished, they are reading a text that shows the interpretive revision process which only results in further fragmentation and confusion within the reader. According to O’Brien, something isn’t true unless it feels true; things can even happen in reality and not be true. Sometimes true stories cannot be believed because some of the most unbearable parts are true.

This is shown when O’Brien retells the story of Curt Lemons’ death. He manipulates our perception of beauty and gore and transforms it into a hazy dream-like scenario. O’Brien purposely skims over Lemons’ death “when he died it was almost beautiful,” (67) and instead goes into incredible detail over “the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms.” (67). Here we can see that instead of trying to separate what actually happened and what seemed to happen, O’Brien works with his memory and introduces fictitious elements to make the story more appealing.

In an interview with Jack Smith, O’Brien opens us up to this process of storytelling by reminding us that our perception of the world is subjective and individualistic. “There’s a real world out there that influences all of us” (Smith). Additionally, O’Brien explains that “reality – or what we call reality – has traveled through the human mind and come out the other end as a blur.” (Smith). In “The Things They Carried”, it’s easy to see that many of the stories follow closely with O’Brien’s real experiences within the Vietnam War. One of the most prominent features being the main character carries the author’s own name and is a Vietnam War soldier who served in the Alpha Company much like O’Brien himself. It’s clearly established O’Brien’s own personal war experiences are likely the foundation to his war stories, however, that is not the main point. The major point O’Brien wanted to make with his novel was that there are always varieties and angles on truth. What we bring to a report of truth determines our judgements about truthfulness. Instead of delivering us the truth, “The Things They Carried” makes the entire conflict centered around truth. “O’Brien’s strategy, throughout the book, is to hook the reader into an engaging story, then radically disrupt the narrative” (Volkmer 245). In essence, “O’Brien wants to pull the rug out from under the reader, explode complacencies, keep the reader on the edge and guessing” (Volkmer 245). He wants us to abandon all preconceived notions so that we may be more open to what we are presented rather than what we think should have happened.

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