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Is The Theme Of If I Die In A Combat Zone By Tim O Brien

1383 Words6 Pages

In If I die in a combat zone, Box me up and ship me home, there is a very detailed description of the Vietnam war through the eyes of Tim O’Brien. His understanding of war due to his service in the Vietnam war, gives readers a better understanding of the sociopolitical environment during the 60s and 70s. The novel puts the reader in the position of a young American man being drafted and sent to Vietnam. Unlike other authors, Tim O’Brien is able to use his first hand knowledge of being a soldier and incredible vernacular to give an accurate depiction of war.
The Vietnam War was a war that most Americans at the time were not happy with. They did not agree with why we were sending young men to die in a foreign land. Tim O’Brien was one of those Americans. He did not try to hide the fact that he did not support the vietnam war. He was open about having thoughts about avoiding the draft and fleeing to Canada but instead he stayed in America and did not try to flee …show more content…

Although there is certainly a line between the two, Tim O’brien is able to better tell emotions through a fictitious stories with very real principles, drawing from actual events or real people. He does this changing stories around just enough to give a very realistic view to the reader and play with his/her emotions more than a real story would. In a lot of war stories the emotional and psychological aspect of being a soldier is non existent but in if I die in a combat zone: box me up and ship me home it is a very crucial part of the story because in O’brien’s eyes it is how he communicates with the reader how war really feels. “Smiling and saying no sir, my real problem is one of conscience and philosophy and intellect and emotion and fear and physical hurt and a desire to live chastened by a desire to be good, and also, underneath, a desire to prove myself a hero, I explained, in the broadest terms, what troubled me.”

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In the Lake of the Woods is a book about a man who comes back from the war in Vietnam and moves into a cabin in a town called In the Lake of the woods, but shortly thereafter his wife goes missing and he tries to find her while battling other things. Tim O’Brien is an American author from Austin, Minnesota. He was born on October 1st, 1946. He enrolled and studied at Malcalester College. He graduated from the in 1968 with a BA in political science and also a draft notice.

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Why does Tim O’Brien only Share Fictional War Stories? How many times have you read a fact, but never truly connected to it? You probably didn’t have the emotional sense that you would have had if you were to read those facts, but in a story outline. Tim O’Brien expresses his experience in the Vietnam War, not by listing off facts, but by writing a fictional story so the readers can understand and feel the emotional connection. When someone reads a history book, it’s dull because it has bunch of facts without a detailed description.

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22 million American men were drafted for the Vietnam War, 30,000 men leaving the country to avoid the inevitable draft. In Tim O’Brien’s 1990 historical fiction novel The Things They Carried, 22 short stories of the war are told by a first hand soldier who had experienced the guilt and grief associated with war. These stories follow O’Brien’s fellow soldiers and friends as they go along the war and the audience sees the development of these soldiers whose life had just been turned upside down. The readers see the guilt and grief associated with the war and the variety of how these soldiers cope with this loss. Rat Kiley, Mary Anne, and Linda are all characters the readers see whose innocence is ripped away from them at such a young age and

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How Does Tim O Brien Tell A True War Story?

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Novelist, Tim O’Brien writes short semi true stories about his and other’s experiences in the Vietnam war. O’Brien wanted to explain to his audience what happens in war and how it effects people after the fact. O’Brien really helps his audience acknowledge how much war really does change people. Tim’s dynamic use of symbolism, imagery, and figurative language emphasizes the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that people experience during and after the war. O’Brien begins by analyzing the thoughts of sorrow and loss overwhelm the Vietnam veterans upon their return back home.

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Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

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In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.

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If I Die in a Combat Zone The Vietnam War affected the United States population by causing most troops to experience mental health disorders, alcoholism, drug addiction, and many more struggles that left Americans feeling empty after the war. The United States feared that communism was going to spread to South Vietnam. They feared that this spread of communism would lead to a domino effect, which would start with one nation becoming destabilized due to communism, and it leading onto other countries making a repeating effect globally. In If I Die in a Combat Zone O’Brien is the narrator, author and protagonist that takes place in the novel.

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