”(80) to me this quote is the point in the novel where O'brian speaks the truth about war stories. And the quote it's self explains that this book is a work of fiction. 2) The author is 43 meaning that he was 23 during the Vietnam War so
Author Information The author, Tim O'Brien served in the United States military from 1968 to 1970, during the Vietnam War. The unit he served in was involved in the infamous My Lai Massacre. When his unit moved to the area of the massacre the place was very hostile to him and and his unit. According to him, the book The Things They Carried had a contrast between what was really happening, and the story part of the event. He is considered to write stories using Verisimilitude, the blur between fiction and reality in philosophical terms.
First, Tim O’Brien shared some key statements signaling the presence of the major internal conflict going on within him when he stated “My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war” (O’Brien 49). This was a powerfully written sentence because it truly shows the reader the internal conflict that he is battling against with himself, and that going to war was definitely not going to be a super easy decision to make. The use of this conflict makes the reader engaged in the story, wondering what the main character will do about said conflict and whether or not he will make the choice people want him to make or whether or not he will make the choice he wants to
Tim was a very smart man and a great soldier. He changed the world by being a great leader and soldier also a great author. Tim wrote the book The Things They Cared which is a good history lesson about war. He said “a mysterious blending of the real and imaginary,” O’Nan said, “It makes us feel the loss of friends and innocence the resulting confusion that gives the war a deeply personal resonance. He used his writing to create emotions as well as to convey ideas”(where did these quotes come from?
Since he opposes the war originally, Tim has to alter his ideologies completely. He is forced to do something he once thought unfathomable, in order to become a soldier, and “take aim at another human being” (175). By doing this just to avoid “patriotic ridicule” (186) Tim goes against everything he believes in solely to ensure people do not judge him. Tim chooses to make tremendous sacrifices of not only his own life but is forced to live with the blood of those he will have to kill. Even if he does survive the war, he will never be the same due to what he sees or does while in Vietnam.
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.
At this moment, O’Brien is going through remorse for himself. He does not think that he should be forced to fight in this war when he does not believe in what they are fighting for. O’Brien believes that the war was unjust because “certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (1002).O’Brien
How can one tell if something is true or not? How can one tell if what you hear or read is pure fiction or reality? These are questions I often asked myself when I read “The Things they Carried” by Tim O’Brien. You begin to ask these questions throughout the book but begin to realize that these type of questions don't matter. What matters is the deeper meaning that the author is trying to convey.
Tim O’Brien was very clear with his stance on the war, he very much opposed it. He wasn’t able to find the meaning or purpose behind the war and most definitely didn’t want to participate in it. “I was drafted to fight a war I hated.” (O’Brien, 38). This quotation showcases Tim’s feelings about the war, and how he disliked it.
O’Brien is trying to present young warriors in war as fragile living creatures who are blood and bone, not fantasy fighters who bring glory to the cause, “This idea of the deified nation, a replacement god of abstract principle that can be honored and worshipped through war, has been gradually ousted from its place as the center of the American story” (Ooms 42) That is what the many sides of the story are in conflict while purporting to be the one true version of what happened. No one’s account is really reliable. All of the accounts are based on individual impressions including those of solidarity among the soldiers. O 'Brien demands that outdated stories of grit and valor be put aside to make room for a new kind of war story.
Ambiguity Lingers On Edith Wharton, who is an American author, states “The novelist must rely on what maybe called the illuminating incident to reveal and emphasize the inner meaning of each situation” (Wharton). Tim O’Brien uses illuminating moments to show how war makes guilt ambiguous. By examining three specific moments, the reader discovers how difficult it is to deal with the ambiguities of guilt. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross suffers from the ambiguity of guilt about Ted Lavender’s death.
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.
Tim knew that he was not a killer and that the war was going to be a stressful time for him. One of his biggest moments of feeling bad about what he did was when he killed his first soldier. O’Brien feels instant regret once he throws the grenade and kills the man. All other thoughts leave his mind, and his full focus and shock is on what he had just done. “I was terrified” he explains, “there were no thoughts about killing.
This quote stated by O’Brien shares how himself and other soldiers felt about the war, and how they felt like their fight and war tactact was overall useless for the United States. O’Brien also mentions that he feels frustrated that the government would let thousands of Americans' lives to end just for a war that had no benefit or meaning for the country. O’Brien is a great representative for American soldiers who served in the Vietnam War because of the emotion and frustration he felt about the war and the war’s
Even though all of the people he would be letting down were only a figment of his imagination at this point, he is too ashamed to defy what everyone is expecting of him and hide from the war. At this point, he says, “It had nothing to do with morality. Embarrassment, that's all it was”. O’Brien truly wants to hide from his fears of the war, but his pride gets in the way as he is extremely embarrassed to rebel against his expectations as a man. O’Brien feels that he must contribute to his country or else he would be ridiculed and become disgraceful to his country.
