According to James Baldwin, "I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all." In other words, although who we are as people is dependent upon the circumstances of the time and place we grow up, we still have the potential to surpass these binding constraints. We exist as individuals outside of what our societies dictate for us. This is shown to be true in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. These authors utilize literary elements such as characterization and point of view to delineate this idea.
In Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, O’Brien is both the narrator and the protagonist of stories that are inspired by the Vietnam War. Over the course of his work, O’Brien’s character develops in a way that illustrates how growing up during the Vietnam War era influences the person O’Brien is. However, O’Brien’s work also displays how as an individual, O’Brien is “so much more than that.” Tim O’Brien writes, “…the act of writing had led me through a swirl of memories that might otherwise have ended in paralysis or worse. By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths” (158). It is clear in this instance that O’Brien is utilizing his abilities to express himself through writing not only to comprehend his life experiences, but also to establish himself as an individual amidst such a tumultuous time period. O’Brien reveals in his work that he had absolutely no intentions of getting involved in the controversial Vietnam War. As a liberal, he was modestly against the war and had a full ride to graduate school at Harvard when his draft notice arrived in 1968. Although O’Brien sincerely struggled with the idea of going to war, even almost escaping to Canada, he eventually realizes that he was too “embarrassed” not to go to the war. The circumstances of American society in the ways that O’Brien would be judged and criticized for dodging his obligations to the government pushes O’Brien to become a person he never intended to be. American history and her involvement in global affairs made Tim O’Brien a soldier. While countless soldiers did not even survive to have a life after the war like O’Brien, Tim O’Brien specifically utilizes his circumstances to become so much more than what Vietnam forced him to be. O’Brien chooses to use his writing as a cathartic means to express and understand with clarity the circumstances of his life as a soldier and how those experiences impact and influence the person he is outside of the war. It is through this character that we can understand James Baldwin’s statement to be true.
Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn utilizes narration and characterization to illustrate the validity of James Baldwin’s expression of what makes human beings. While Smith utilizes several different narrators throughout the novel, it is clear that Francie Nolan is the protagonist as the novel tracks her growth from an eleven year old kid to a seventeen-year-old young woman. The setting of the novel stays consistent and is a very descriptive and poignant representation of Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the early 1900s. Smith utilizes this setting along with Francie’s personal depiction and understanding of a life plagued with immense poverty to enhance the creation and depth of Francie’s character. Smith also uses omniscient third person narration to even further enhance our understanding; Smith writes, “A person who pulls himself up from a low environment via the boot strap route has two choices. Having risen above his environment, he can forget it; or, he can rise above it and never forget it and keep compassion and understanding in his heart for those that he has left behind him in the cruel upclimb” (147). Francie and her family are definitely a part of the “low environment” that this instance implicates in terms of their economic status. While Francie and her family never rise above this poverty, Francie’s character is developed in a way that exemplifies how she is “much more” than just a young girl growing up in Brooklyn before the start of WWI. Growing up under the guidance and direction of two parents that never received an education and one whose life was ruined by alcohol moved Francie in a specific direction. While Francie never forgets where she comes from for those influences and circumstances define her everyday life, Francie as a character also exists outside of these environmental constraints. Much like Tim O’Brien, Francie discovers that her written stories are her way of creating realities that in turn help her understand the truths that define her own amidst these conditions. Francie’s existence is enhanced by so much more than the circumstances of her family, time period, or life in Williamsburg. Her inherent compassion, her intuition about the goodness of people and her love for writing exists outside of these time and situational constraints and thus validates James Baldwin’s claim.
According to James Baldwin, “"I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all." Clearly, upon analyzing Tim O’Brien’s use of characterization in The Things They Carried and Betty Smith’s use of narration and characterization in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, this statement is made valid. Although both protagonists from these works are undoubtedly influenced and “made” by the circumstances of their environments that they are subjected to, it is also clear how these authors use literary elements to express how these characters exist outside of these constraints. Both Tim O’Brien and Franie Nolan use writing as a means of establishing their individual selves in an effort to transcend what their lives and time periods have exposed them to. Tim and Francie exist as “much more” than just faces of their representative circumstances.
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