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The Vietnam Soldier In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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Based on both Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and the interviews of Vietnam veterans, being a soldier in Vietnam means to sacrifice your views on war for your county. This is explored both O’Brien’s book, as well as in the interview of Vietnam veteran, Charles G. Richardson. O’Brien was always against the war; he felt that as he identified as a liberal, he should not have been in Vietnam. Richardson, however, had an interesting take on this. “I don’t like war; none of us do. But, I do enjoy my freedom. And without the sacrifices that we have to make, I do not feel that we would enjoy the freedom that we have today,” (Richardson). This quote is a great example of showing a man who was a true patriot and Vietnam soldier, despite disliking …show more content…

For instance, in one particularly moving part of the book, he talks about how mentally unstable he was after he killed someone. O’Brien could not stop thinking about the man he killed, he even started to make up a backstory for the dead man. “He had been born, maybe, in 1946 in the village of My Khe near the central coastline of Quang Ngai province where his parents farmed… many neighbors had joined in the struggle for independence,” (119). When his fellow platoon member, Kiowa, tried to his best to comfort him, it was ineffective as O’Brien remained silent the entire time. This is significant because this is one of many examples where O’Brien had been mentally scarred by the experience. Since O’Brien has suffered so much mental damage, like this, from doing his duties as a Vietnam soldier, it would be unfair to discredit him, just because he was against the …show more content…

Although Tim O’Brien was against the war, he was still there to support his the other soldiers. One example of this was how after Kiowa was killed, the rest of the platoon paid respect to him. “The men stood quietly for a few seconds. There was a feeling of awe. Mitchell Sanders finally nodded and said, ‘Let’s get it done’, and they took hold of the legs and pulled up hard, then pulled again, and after a moment, Kiowa cam sliding to the surface,” (167). The fact that they took a moment of silence as they stared at Kiowa’s dead body showed how strong of a unit their platoon was. This is significant because it shows how O’Brien was a true Vietnam soldier: he was always engaged with what was happening with his fellow platoon members. Another example of this was Clarence Sasser, who was a medical aid in the war. Sasser would always continue to help out all his wounded men, even when he was wounded himself. In regards to receiving a medal of honor for his service, he said, “Well, it’s my job. I didn’t think what I did was above and beyond. I never have,” (Sasser). This shows how being a Vietnam soldier meant to always be there for your

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In some parts of the The Things They Carried, O’Brien demonstrates slight good in war. An example of which is spending time with your friends as well as making new ones. O’Brien and Lieutenant Jim Cross spend some good times with their friends, whether it’s smoking cigarettes or shooting for practice. All the soldiers spent time in a pagoda in Vietnam where they might some priest and had a little fun.

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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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As an individual is faced with an important decision, having the support and understanding of others is crucial in order to ensure the individual feels confident enough to choose, what they believe is best for them. By understanding the feelings of another and providing empathy, it lessens the individual’s hesitance to make a decision despite society’s views on the subject. In the short story “On the Rainy River” written and narrated by Tim O’Brien, the narrator is drafted to fight in the Vietnam war and considers draft dodging to avoid fighting for something he disagrees with. When forced to choose between going against his beliefs and fighting in the war, or losing everything he cares about by fleeing the country, Tim seeks refuge at the

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In conclusion, it is reasonable to say that Tim O’Brien needs to be harsh in his self-criticism because he values himself more than he does others. He also believes that society should see him as a high class character who can contribute to the good of humanity. Thought, he displays a good example that supports this argument through his work ethics, both in school and in the pig factory, this only proves that he is incapable of doing the society any good. Since he has a paucity of perseverance which may deplete further if he chose to stay in Canada instead of going to the war. Furthermore, O’Brien displays himself as a vain character who believes that he is above anyone else, and therefore should not have been drafted for the war.

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His coping mechanism that he uses is through his writing about the Vietnam War. He is writing because he is trying to deal or understand what happened in the war. In the chapter “The Lives of the living Dead”, explains that through O’Brien’s writings, he able to come to peace at what he observed and did in combat. He may not understand why events had happened because he has not remembered the most traumatic experiences clearly. Even if his friends are dead, he will be able to remember them and his surviving platoon, through his stories to immortalize them.

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It is evident that he wanted to give the readers insight into stories and real-life experiences during the war. According to an article published by Alex Vernon, O’Brien was careful to avoid focusing on the war while advertising his story, in hopes of portraying his book in a different light than all the other novels focused around the negative and horrific realities that war is. He uses his own real-life experiences and twists them slightly to correlate with the story, while still providing a informative take on things. O’Brien was wounded by a grenade during his time that he served. He rewrites this experience as the narrator using a grenade on a Vietnam soldier.

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In the short story, “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien focuses on this to show that everyone fighting in a war has a story. He spends the story describing the man he killed and searching for justification of his actions. He carries around guilt with him because of it, and his fellow soldiers try to help him justify and come to terms with his action by saying things like, “You want to trade places with him? Turn it all upside down= you want that? I mean, be honest,” (126) and “Tim, it’s a war.

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In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien expresses to the reader why the men went to the war and continued to fight it. In the first chapter, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien states “It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather they were too frightened to be cowards.” The soldiers went to war not because they were courageous and ready to fight, but because they felt the need to go. They were afraid and coped with their lack of courage by telling stories (to themselves or aloud) and applied humor to the situations they encountered.

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In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” the character, O’Brien, is shot during combat. The medic on duty, being a rooky, is unsure of how to help O’Brien. He is later hospitalized and unable to fight anymore. When he finally returns to combat duty, he feels out of place and no longer at home with the other soldiers. He becomes obsessed with exacting his revenge on the medic.

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War is a topic most people have a strong opinion on. Most people clearly show if they are for a war or against it. Tim O`Brien the main character in the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. O`Brien view of war is very similar to Henry David Thoreau, the author of “Civil Disobedience ”, view on the war. O’Brien was against the Vietnam War and in his own words says, “ I was drafted to fight a war I hated (O`Brien 40)”.

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O’Brien goes into great depth in this small quote on how loss of innocence and war can affect people in the war. The quote “Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t” shows how war is so different from what any human experiences at home. After that small quote he follows it up by bringing up how you have to use normal stuff to show how crazy these things are and how much of a pole it can have on somebody during a war. The way that war is treated for many is mostly the mental part that is struggling. But for many "War is hell, but that's not half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love.

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Textual Analysis In the short story “On the Rainy River” O’Brien uses an archetypal journey to show that he is not an archetypal hero. Jung decided there was a pattern to journeys in heroic stories so he made 11 stages that all heroic journeys follow. I have chosen 1 that O’Brien does follow and 2 that he does not to follow to emphasize his cowardness and his inability to stand up for what he believes in. Increased awareness of fear and change, over coming fear and mastery.

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1504 Words | 7 Pages

Even after all these years, O’Brien is still unable to get the images of Vietnam out of him head, specifically of the man he killed. In the novel, he repeats the description of the man numerous times, almost to the point of excess, saying,“he was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole” (124).

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“Many of his [Tim O’Brien’s] novels and stories draw on his experiences during the war” (Gardner 1332-1333). Authors may feel as though they have a unique perspective on an event because they witnessed it first hand and know details about the event that few others do. Tim O’Brien was promoted to sergeant during the Vietnam war and later decorated with a purple heart (Gardner 1332-1333). Tim O’Brien was a high ranking enlisted man in the Vietnam war. One can assume there were times he had to make difficult decisions for his platoon and himself.

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688 Words | 3 Pages

He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.

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