Summary Of Ambush By Tim O Brien

War is hell. You can’t photograph a flying bullet; but you can’t capture genuine fear. (Horst Fass) Tim O’brien is the author of the short story “Ambush”, written in 1990. Tim is the narrator of the story who recounts an incident of war. When Tim’s nine year old daughter asks him why he keeps writing stories about war, and if he has ever killed a man before. Tim doesn’t know how to respond, he hesitates on telling her the truth but choose not tell tell her until she gets older, and until he feels like she can handle the truth. War doesn’t make us feel safe, it doesn’t make people feel safe on the battlefield, when the war is over, and even when we return home. War has been apart of our country for as long as people can remember, but is it

“I was terrified” (O’Brien 812) When Tim saw the enemy approaching he was terrified, he felt his stomach turning, he felt his mouth get dry, and his hands and body shake not knowing what was going to happen. Tim never thought about killing a man until he threw the grande hoping the grande would take care of everything. After the grande went off, and Tim saw the enemy on the ground, he did not know how to act, or feel after word because he was in so much shock. “God Bless, and Be Safe” This line is a well known lined used in the war, but in all honesty it makes men sick to their stomach because they don’t feel safe. Men say that every time they hear this line it makes them feel like the won’t be safe, it makes them think of the worst things that could happen. Telling soldiers to be safe is useless because they already don’t feel safe, and them hearing it over, and over does not help them because then they think of the worst possible

Those words killed Tim as he lay there in astonishment after what he did. Even though he killed a man he did not feel anything, he felt more bad than anything, that he had taken a life. Tim knew that if didn’t it would have been hid life one the line and that scared Tim more than anything. Sometimes Tim forgives himself and other time he does not, because then he thinks about his little girl, and how she would have grown up without a father. “Anybody who is touched by a war will never be the same” even though men and women do not feel safe in the war, there is not much they can do about it. They either feel unsafe, and push through, and work to save, and fight for our country. Once you do go to the war, you never come back the same, the war affects you mentally, and physically, and sometimes people never come back the