The ‘Inevitable’ Women: Studying Female Presence in War Spaces through Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried

Abstract

The literature of war exposes the gender binaries and stereotypes that are reinforced by war. The Vietnam War is one of the most popular wars in American history; it is the first war televised live. The reason for its popularity lies in its project of ‘re-masculinizing’ America. With the Cold War and the Anti-War protests all over the country, America used the gender norms to justify the war. Of its multi-layered gender role enforcement, first it projects itself as the masculine ‘saviour’ who is going to fight for democracy and rights of a ‘feminized’ Asian country; second, its use of misogynistic slangs to create a homo-social bond among men and alienate women; but can the presence of women be omitted? In my paper I shall do a close textual analysis of The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien to show how he explores the female presence in the Vietnam War, as well as how the novel is a critique of the war literature of the time that attempts to reinforce the gender binaries.