Summary Of If I Die In A Combat Zone

I read this novel “If I Die In A Combat Zone” By Tim O’Brien. The novel was published in 1973 and can be classified as a memoir. He was born on October 1st 1946, during the “Baby boom” after World War II. He grew up on a prairie in Minnesota, and went to college at Macalester College.

The book is written mostly in first person. The story is about O’Brien and his experience as a soldier in the Vietnam War. He was drafted into the army in 1968, when he just got out of college. At first when O’Brien was drafted he was hesitant, but fearful of being ridiculed by his friends and family back on the Prairie where he live he decided to join. Another factor that helped to push him to join the army going to Vietnam was that his father was a Veteran from

He follows the circle like motion of thought through out his book. In the beginning of the story O’Brien doesn’t like the idea and the reason for the Vietnam War in which he is fighting. Through out the book he changes in many different ways, in chapter five for example O’Brien says “I learned to smoke”. He picked up this and other habits from the training camp. When O’Brien goes back in time in telling the story he doesn’t really like the idea of killing people but later he learns that he has to. One example of this is in one of his charges it says that he does not hate the men nor does he want them dead but he shoots when Captain Johansen gives the order. He was just following orders. Through out the story he also has internal struggles about him being courageous, doing the right thing, and being ridiculed for it or him not doing anything and let many innocent people just die. He uses one of Plato’s examples of courage when he says without knowing for certain that what a man does is right, is not true courage. He relates this to him killing all of these people in the war that he didn’t want to join in the first place. When he thinks about this he thinks that is why Captain Johansen is such a good leader, and this is where the theme of the story comes into play which is to stand up for what you think is right. After a while of war O’Brien gets somewhat desensitized to killing people and the death around him. He says

He had lots of details about the charges and what they went through. One part that I think was very powerful but helped to show how cruel some soldiers were to civilians was chapter 10. Its about when O’Brien and his company went to one of the villages they saw an old man sitting by a well and they realized he was blind. While the old man was bathing the soldiers one of them got a carton of milk and threw it and hit the old man in his face, after a few seconds of regaining his balance and getting more water, he finished washing them. I feel like even though this isn’t a part of the main plot it was one of the most important parts to me. He could have just left this part out entirely and it wouldn’t have impacted the story line much but him including it just added to showing the true horrors of war, O’Brien even says “No one moved to help”. That shows how cruel and savage these people were. Including this small story I think attributes to the success of this novel. Another detail that I though was effective was how he described how one of the soldiers cut off the ears of the people he killed and how they tied the old men to a tree for a night. One of the only downfalls of the book that I can think of is its use of curses. The only reason I think this is a downfall is because I think it would drive some younger readers away from such a good piece of literature. The piece has a strong that could help some of todays youth to stand up