SEPARATION ANXIETIES - Lsu - Louisiana State University

In order to explore how artists represent this paradigm and how it might change, I
examine works that focus on the entire Vietnam experience—a pre-war period, combat and/or
rear-echelon work, and the return to America. These texts are Tim O’Brien’s novel/collection
The Things They Carried and Michael Cimino’s mythic film The Deer Hunter. The Things They
Carried and The Deer Hunter depend upon a progression of internal and external conflicts,
which lead the characters to alienation, segregation, and separatism. Though I believe that the
characterizations in these works are in some respects typical of Vietnam War literature, I make
no claims that my arguments can or should be applied to every text that uses the War as a
narrative device. I also make no claims that The Things They Carried and The Deer Hunter are
somehow better or more accurate representations of Vietnam veterans’ experiences than other
texts. Obviously, these works are imaginary; as I will argue in chapter three, The Deer Hunter in
particular seems ahistorical and unrealistic. What I do claim is that studying these two works
together can help illuminate the function of separatism—as a conscious political act or as a
perception—in the lives of these characters, and that such representations can thereby
demonstrate the problematic nature of our relationship with Vietnam soldiers. In terms of my
project, this chapter extends definitions of the terms “separatism” and “community” to malecentered,
largely populated, and imagined communities; it also shows how O’Brien’s and
Cimino’s communities endure conflicts similar to those discussed in previous chapters, even
though the causes and consequences of these problems may be quite different. Through studying
these two works, I hope to reveal the paradoxes of perceived separatism. 12 Doing so should help
illuminate partially the ambiguity of the Vietnam conflict, America’s historical reactions to it,
and the art that has been produced about it.
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