War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Tim O’Brien’s book “The Things They Carried” has many stories of people's different experiences with war. The three stories (“The Man I Killed”, “Ambush” and “Good Form”) all have the same way of writing that makes it clear to the reader how they know the emotions of the narrator's trauma. How they communicate those types of emotion, and how the people around them reassure them. Susan Farrell gave some of her opinions off of it that she put into a review.
The first thing we notice is the emotions through the narrator's trauma. In “The Man I Killed” Tim O’Brien the main character wanted to contain his emotions by adding more positive emotions. You can see the negative when the soldier is constantly looking at the man and standing there shaken,

The first story “The Man I Killed”, where even though it took Tim so long to talk about it and he told him multiple times to take his time while also saying “Come on, man, talk” (O’Brien 124). Throughout that time he was able to come through with the emotions that he was experiencing. That was the same thing between the story “Ambush” , where the listener is Kiowa and was able to reassure her about “he would’ve died anyway” (O’Brien 127). Telling her this just gives her more comfort in admitting to her feelings. The final story by Tim O’Brien (Good Form), where there wasn't really a listener that was physically present due to the fact that he is writing it in a book. He knows that which makes more sense of why he said “I want you to feel what I felt” (O’Brien 171). That sentence can imply that he knew that there would be a response from the things he says but ultimately he wants those sayings to be read by people who can feel that sort of emotion coming off of his writing. This was exactly what Susan Farrell thought when she was reading the book, where she says “listeners must be ready to experience some of the terror, grief, and rage” (Farrell 187). Most of the quotes show this, especially the ones in Ambush and Good Form, showing Tim O’Briens way of writing trauma and the way people respond to it, also how what they saw affected one's