If I Die In A Combat Zone Box Me Home Analysis

The book If I die in a Combat Zone Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O’Brien is a brillIant illustration of World War I and the impact it had on Americans. O’Brien expresses his opinion that World War I was not America’s war to fight through his depiction of the effect the war had on Americans physically and emotionally O’Brien showed readers that many Americans were not in favor of America’s entry into the war. Apart from the concept of isolationism, which basically means that America stays out of the affairs of other countries, Americans had other reasons to justify their convictions. Some Americans felt like the war was immoral and unnecessary and that the war was a game to politicians at the price of innocent lives being lost. O’Brien was one them, he showed

O’Brien had no will to kill anyone, nor did he have hatred towards the said enemy. He only followed the orders of the commanders. O’Brien hated the fact that he had to kill innocent people, he also hated the idea that after being on combat for the first time he had become a part of the idea he hated so much.It is a known fact that trauma changes people. When the soldiers run into an injured Vietnamese soldier who happened to be a woman, O’Brien shows different characteristic that was shared among soldiers. Some were very cold-hearted towards the woman, while others felt bad that they injured a woman (ch.12). He also illustrates how war can change people through Major Callicles, after the My Lai massacre the major becomes what he hated the most, and drunken alcoholic, in his drunkenness he makes rash decisions (ch 22). O’Brien continues to emphasize the fact that the soldiers hated the enemy they didn’t know. He didn’t see the Vietnamese soldiers as the enemy, rather he saw them as people in his position;