베트남과 흔들리는 미국 남성성의 신화: 팀 오브라이언의 작품 세계

Abstract

This paper discusses the shaky and unsteady American mythology of manliness in Tim O’Brien’s works. American society, as O’Brien himself has experienced and thus described so poignantly in his works, has long been proud of its dependence of military force for nation-building and expending its border. Since the closure of American frontier in the 1890s, America has looked for new frontiers. Vietnam is considered a New Frontier by American policy-makers and they are about to reenact the frontier virtues of the past and thus restore the manliness for American soldiers and public as well. American soldiers, accustomed to their society’s respect for military force through army plays and mass media, try to relive their ancestors’ manliness in Vietnam. The tough environmental forces of Vietnam, however, defy American desire and American soldiers witness the breakdown of their myth and suffer from traumatic experiences. To heal their hurt pride, the soldiers quite often commit serious crimes against civilians, and the wrongly conceived and ill-practiced acts of vengeance are no exception when they return to America, targeting their female partners as the very objects of restoring their hurt pride. O’Brien seems to suggest the possible solution to this hurt pride of male characters by presenting more flexible and accommodating femininity or feminine virtues, but soon finds that feminine virtues has limits in America where the myth of frontier and of manliness is still too strong and deep-rooted.