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Yeaseul Park
Mr. Webster
IB 1 Lang & Lit
28 October 2013
Rationale:
I have chosen to write a transcript of a funeral eulogy for the fictional character Tim O’Brien
from the fiction The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. In his book, the author switches back and
forth between himself and his persona he created in the book. For this eulogy, I presumed that the
character passed away at the age of 67 due to natural death in May 2013. I chose a eulogy because it
was a unique form of writing that I have never written and that would allow me to explore the
characterization of Tim O’Brien through the eyes of another character.
The speaker of this eulogy is O’Brien’s former lieutenant Jimmy Cross. I chose him since
there was evidence that their close relationship developed after the war; the chapter Love specifically
describes a scene when Jimmy Cross visits O’Brien years after the war. The intended audience is the
people who attended O’Brien’s funeral, mainly his family, friends, and colleagues. The purpose of
this eulogy was to pray for the repose of the deceased and to comfort and inspire the listeners with the
memories of Tim O’Brien. In his eulogy, Jimmy Cross expressed his great respect and honor for
O’Brien for his stories and mental support. Thus, the tone was serious and comforting but not somber.
The language used simple syntax as it was a spoken text. Because this is the transcript of his speech,
this text includes some nonverbal queues to indicate his emotions and show interaction with the
audience.
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Through this eulogy, I hope the audience will have better and deeper understanding about the
character Tim O’Brien. O’Brien had a unique insight in writing stories because they were his ways of
coping with the war memories. These aspects hopefully will be clearly revealed through the eulogy.
[Word count: 299 words]
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Written Task:
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Jimmy Cross, and I was the former lieutenant of Tim
O’Brien during the Vietnam War.
I first met Tim O’Brien in 1968 when he joined the Alpha Company as a fresh, young soldier.
During those violent years, there were hundreds of new soldiers entering the troop every month, but
O’Brien was one man whom I would never forget. ((brief pause)) I remember it was a few days after
another infantryman had joined the troop. A man was found dead after an air strike that I had ordered.
The soldiers gathered around the body and gave it a handshake with some dead, dry jokes.
((chuckle)) That was how we dealt with death, or we could not accept the death of our peer and so
treated the body as if it were still alive. I remember the older soldiers trying to make O’Brien give it a
handshake as well, but O’Brien refused. Kiowa, one of his peers, praised him for having the guts to
refuse it. I overheard O’Brien say that he just couldn’t do it, but now I wonder if O’Brien was
perhaps the only man who knew the proper way to deal with death and the war.
After the war, I had to attend many funerals. A lot of my military colleagues had a hard time
shifting into their original places after the war. Mostly, they couldn’t bear the guilt and horror so had
to lived dependent on drugs and alcohol. But they still could not stop having nightmares, until
((sigh)) they eventually decided to set their own souls to eternal rest. It was sad, very sad, to watch
what the war had done to mankind. They were the same men I used to know at the frontline, but
when they were set free to the world without orders and violence one day, they couldn’t bear it. Tim
was different. ((raising voice)) He did suffer from the same guilt and horror. To me, it was amazing
to observe how he was able to just lock up all his war memories deep at the bottom of his heart and
glide right back to his life. ((raising tone as if surprised)) He barely spoke of the war and continued
on with his life. While I had to visit so many funerals after Vietnam, O’Brien went straight to
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graduate school, from Chu Lai to Harvard. That was when I started to look at Tim O’Brien with new
eyes, with astonishment and respect, ((slower and with smile)) and that was when I started to read his
stories.
O’Brien and I built our relationship mostly after the war. In the war, we maintained a formal
relationship of a lieutenant and a soldier. He was a good solider. He would follow orders without
questioning or much complaining, which is one of the most important and necessary qualities of a
soldier. But I would say that there was something else he was even better at. He was a good listener.
After the war, I used to visit him every so often to drink a bottle of gin and just chat. Sitting with him
elicited some courage in me that encouraged me to spit out things I would have never dared to in
front of anyone else. I would tell him some of my deepest secrets and stories.
In return, O’Brien barely talked about his own life, but he told them through his stories. One
time, he even asked me if he could write a story about Martha, a girl I told him about. When I asked
him why he wrote stories all the time, he said, ((changing voice as if whispering)) “stories can bring
the dead alive because story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth” ((with hand movements))
At first, I wondered how a man can stay so naïve after such war experience. Now I understand that it
was the war that had solidified such beliefs. It was his way of coping with the death and guilt. He was
a man who believed in story-truth.
Through his stories, I learned a lot about Tim O’Brien. When he first received his notice, he
was scared and was in a moral split, as probably every man was at that time. He feared death, but he
even more feared losing his life, respect from his parents, and the law. Most men joined the war
because they were cowards not to. O’Brien personally felt shame and embarrassment about this fact,
but I have one big reason why I am standing here today to express my pride and respect for Tim
O’Brien.
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No matter how much we treated the stiffen corpses as alive with handshakes and black humor,
death was always the same. Dead. Hard. Rotten. Penetrating smell. Silent. ((with emphasis)) O’Brien
did not force himself to find a sign of life in such deadness because he knew where he could find the
true aliveness. ((slight smile)) Well, it was his stories.
Lastly, I would like to express my appreciation for Tim O’Brien. I appreciate him for living
so long and being my support. Talking to him made me stronger and bolder because he was strong in
himself. Reading his stories of Kiowa and Ted Lavender brought back my memories of them, as if
they were still alive with us. It was truly my pleasure to be able to spend over forty years of my life
knowing the man Tim O’Brien.
No man can ever fully overcome the memories of war, but I believe Tim O’Brien has done
the most of what a man can do. He taught me that what he lost in the past was never lost in his
stories. This is why I have decided to stand here today to acknowledge how great a man Tim O’Brien
was and to give him honor and respect he deserves. I believe that he will be always alive with us in
what he called the spell of memory and imagination.
[Word count: 995 words]
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Work cited
G. Jefferson, Transcript Notation, in J. Heritage (eds), Structures of Social Interaction, New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Mariner, 2009. Print