Little Details

So we're reading Tim O'Brien's story "The Things They Carried" in all my classes this week, and I really think it's a great story to get the semester started off. I like starting the semester with some work with specific, concrete details, and this story has some great examples.
So I'm going to do what I asked my students to do, and list off the examples of "things the soldiers carried" that I can remember without looking back at the story, along with a brief explanation for why I think I remember it.

1. Jimmy Cross' pebble. I think I remember this because of the description of the way he carries it in his mouth. O'Brien talks about the taste of salt, and the saliva that forms when JC pops it in. That was enough to make me identify with putting something in my own mouth.

2. the letters from Martha. This is the same thing. Maybe I have an oral thing going, but O'Brien mentions early that JC knows that Martha has licked the envelopes -- maybe he even licks them himself -- and that was such a powerful image for me that I could almost taste the envelope glue myself.

3. Kiowa's hatchet. Not for the object, but for O'Brien's detail that the hatchet was Kiowa's grandfather's distrust of the whiteman. I had to read that line a few times, and so I think the image of what the hatchet reprsented stuck with me.

4. the pantyhose. of course, this is an unusual image, but I think it stayed with me because I could imagine feeling the nylon on the soft skin of my own neck. I thought they might be hot in the jungle, but who cares? To have an intimate little piece of your girlfriend touching you when you might die. That would probably be OK.

All right. So those are the ones that stick with me off the top of my head. And what I notice about each one is that they stick with me primarily not becaue of the quirky nature of the detail, but because O'Brien gives us a little tidbit about the object's history or function.
So how does that apply to writing for college composition or creative writing classes? Well, when I ask students to make lists, or to include lots of DETAILS in their writing, I often get objects -- and often unusual ones -- that are flat, that have no depth and therefore no resonance. This is certainly understandable, for it takes a lot of practice to be able to include a little bit of history, a little bit of story to an object without overdoing it. So I think we should work on that -- providing a little bit of history without overmilking it. I'll start by posting my own list of the things I carry tomorrow.