Tim O Brien Theme Of Loss

Located in Vietnam, soldiers suffered mentally and physically during the span of the Vietnam War. At points, the emotional luggage was even more of a burden than the physical nature of war. War cannot be simply narrowed down to a definitive answer. The human experience is much broader and more complicated than that. The stories told reflects the entangled lives of the soldiers. The Vietnam experience not only accurately captures the stories through the soldier’s eyes but additionally includes these stories for the readers to experience these stories too. Loss can be categorized as the disappearance of someone or something. Similarly, O’Brien sees loss as “…the single abiding certainty [is] that they would never be at a loss for things to carry.”

He describes in detail Curt Lemon’s death as a way to try to understand him better. He describes him as “a handsome kid, really. Sharp grey eyes, lean and narrow-waisted, and when he died it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms” (O’Brien 67). One of the reasons that he says he struggled mourning over Curt Lemon was that he was not close to him. O’Brien “… found it hard to mourn, [he] knew him only slightly, and what [he] did know was not impressive” (O’Brien 82). He describes his physical features and the crazy games he used to play, like trick-or-treating on Halloween. He vividly describes him as way to cope and try to become closer to

O’Brien makes the decision to tell the story accurately. He wanted people to know that he never froze up, he did not lose the Silver Star of Valor, nor was he responsible for Kiowa’s death in the sewage pit. He recounts the event for all the missed opportunities to explain his war story. As said in the previous chapter “Speaking of Courage” Norman used the word “would’ve” because he would never have explained his war stories, regardless of him wanting to talk. O’Brien writes this as way for his father, Sally Gustafson, and to the server who worked at Mama Burgers to hear what he’s always wanted to say. O’Brien “…[hopes] that ‘Speaking of Courage’ makes good on Norman Bowker’s Silence” (O’Brien