Spin…

“Spin” explores the idea of controlling reality and memory through story. Explain how this is explored in the chapter using details and commentary.

Stories have a unique way of controlling the appearance of reality and memory because they are often told from one person’s point of view.  In this way one can leave out, add, or “spin” occurrences that mold a story to his liking. Tim O’Bryan uses this technique throughout The Things They Carried, and speaks of it in the section of the book appropriately named, Spin. 

O’brien states in this chapter, “On occasion the war was like a Ping-Pong ball. You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance.”

He continues by speaking of two soldiers who would find entertainment in a game of checkers. He stated, “You knew where you stood. You knew the score… There was a winner and a loser. There were rules.” This implies the war was not like this game of checkers at all; but unpredictable and indefinite.

 Later he speaks fondly of a poppa-san who led their team through the jungle and kept them from being obliterated. The tone of this paragraph is light hearted and nostalgic as he remembers his experiance with this old, disabled man and the bond the team created with him. It’s ironic because in reality it was a serious adventure in which anyone of them could have been blown to pieces or shot down at any moment. This aspect is brought into the story comically through the rhyme on of the soldiers, Rat Kiely created, “Step out of line, hit a mine; follow a dink, you’re in the pink.”