SOURCE: Jarraway, David R. “‘Excremental Assault’ in Tim O'Brien: Trauma and Recover in Vietnam War Literature.” Modern Fiction Studies 44, no. 3 (fall 1998): 695-711.

In the following essay, Jarraway analyzes three examples of O'Brien's depiction of trauma and recovery in The Things They Carried and explores the metaphor of excremental waste in relation to O'Brien's war experiences.

“‘You know something?’” [Azar] said. His voice was wistful. “‘Out here, at night, I almost feel like a kid again. The Vietnam experience. I mean, wow, I love this shit.’”

—Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

“The excremental is all too intimately and inseparably bound up with the sexual; the position of the genitals—inter urinas et faeces—remains the decisive and unchangeable factor.”

—Sigmund Freud, Complete Letters

“[Kathy Wade] remembered opening her robe to the humid night air. There was a huge and desperate wanting in her heart, wanting without object, pure...