Tim O Brien Quotes And Analysis

Throughout the series of stories there is a lot of irony behind what is really being said. Soldiers get lost in their thoughts and try to forget the war for a moment. Lieutenant Cross is the one that keeps the soldiers in line and is in charge of the group, but he also goes through something that weighs him down. "On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending,

Emotions and Burdens – “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing – these were intangibles, but they were tangible weight.”(20). O’brien, as well as his platoon members, had to b prepared for death at any given point in time, whether it be his own death or the death of his comrade in arms.

For the second half of the reading the narrator is able to hit the last significant and important parts of his story and is able to close the book for the readers. During the first part of the reading O’Brien describes a man who he killed, he goes on to imagine a whole life for the man. I think O’Brien does this because he’s caught in the moment, he feels so guilty and the thought and the physically appearance of the dead man keeps reappearing and stays on the back on his mind. We also learn about when one of the characters, Norman Bowker, goes back home and finds himself almost lost. Even though he is away from the war and time has passed by, all he can think about is the past, including a high school crush, but mostly about the war. This

Though readers could look to any chapter to find the themes of life through the eyes of war and all of its lenses, O’Brien pulls haunting strings in the chapter, “Friends.” Tackling a story of love amongst friends in the face of tragedy like a New Caster who was live at the scene. The scripted and dispassionate feel towards the demasking of the pure ugliness of war, forces the hairs on the back of one's neck stand. In this chapter, O’Brien tells a story that includes: Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen. After being enemies and then becoming friends through Dave Jensen's paranoid act of breaking his own nose. The two eventually grow to trust each other so much, that they write down a pact of honor. Should one be injured to the point of needing a wheelchair

There are three main thing Tim O’Brien wants us to know about war. The first one thing is how war takes lives. The second one is how war helps us not feel alone. And the last thing is how war consoles us.

Prior to this quote, O’Brien questions how one generalizes war. With this long, incredibly broad description of war, it is clear that the true essence of war cannot be described. All of the words that are used to describe war are contradictory. War for each individual person can be different. Just as O’Brien introduces the idea that “war is grotesque,” he also states that “war is also beauty” (O’Brien 77). Thus, war can be interpreted in a myriad of ways, allowing each individual to take away a different perception of war.

Author’s Background-Tim O’Brien was born on October 1, 1946, in Austin, Minnesota, but was raised in Worthington D.C. At the time his mother was a teacher at an Elementary school and his father an insurance salesman who later became a sailor in World War II. He thought of becoming a writer because of his father's accounts of World War II battles. Then soon after he received his draft and joined the military. He served in the military from 1969 to 1970 as a foot soldier after then leaving the army. After leaving the army he started writing and later published first writing about his personal war experiences like the ones that inspired him when he hear them from his father and called it “If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home”.

In “The Things They Carried” written by Tim O’ Brien, Tim really goes into full detail about his horrifying adventures in Vietnam. In the war, Tim was very descritptive and he liked to talk about his relationships and friendships with other soldiers. The book overall was very keen on giving the reader a good picture of what was happeing and what was going on, because in the world of”The Things They Carried” it’s so vastly described and may not be as heartworming and colorful as other books are, this one is a real tearjerker. Espessialy when one of Tim’s frriends or just plain and simple someone is put to their eternal rest by a Vietnamese soldier. Wars in general are a very touchy subject… at least for me at least. I never like talking

In O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried”, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross thinks the death of his comrade, Ted Lavender is his fault. Jimmy Cross is only 22 years-olds, too young to take on the responsibilities of being First Lieutenant at war. Jimmy Cross’s Fascination with Martha reading and daydreaming about her letters and photos. Jimmy Cross is the way his mind could escape from the ugliness of the wars. In The Vietnam War, being a strong leader over the unit is impossible if the war’s mission is undefined. Death is a part of fighting in The Vietnam War. Ted Lavender’s death is not the fault of the First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross but the result of the Vietnam War.

In the article, “A Conversation With Tim O’Brien,” he is asked several questions on war; specifically the Vietnam war. After O’Brien was asked how a modern day soldier’s experience with war may differ than his own experience, he began to speak of how there are no more drafts like there was when he was enlisted, and then continued to answer in an appalling manner; “ There should be a law: If you support a war, you must go. And your children must go. Otherwise you’re a hypocrite and will be imprisoned for murderous hypocrisy. (Unless, of course, you support a war only to the extent that other people should die in it.)” When a person supports a war, that does not mean that they themselves should fight. If the President of the United States supports

The humid, teeming jungles of Vietnam during the war were the breeding ground of nightmares for U.S. soldiers who were forced to subject themselves to the barbaric conditions daily. A defining author of the Post-war Vietnam era, Tim O’Brien is one of the writers truly able to capture the war through words. O’Brien focuses on the daily life of the soldier more so than the overall conflict, and is able to delve into the true horrors of war and its effects on the men who fought it. O’Brien’s service in the Army gave him the inspiration to write, something he turned into a career. In his memoir, If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, O’Brien writes about his wartime experiences during his service in Vietnam. Like any other young

“How to Tell a True War Story” examines the difficult relationship between the war experience and the soldiers’ telling their stories about the war and their experience. O’Brien says sometimes a true war story cannot be believed because some of the most unbearable parts are true, while some of the normal parts are not. Sometimes, he says, a true war story is impossible to tell. O’Brien also speaks of the beauty of the war, “The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty (O’Brien 347).” Although the war was gruesome he saw some beauty in the war. When the war is over, he uses his ability to tell stories to deal with his guilt and confusion over the atrocities he witnessed

I like the fact that O' Brien describes his personal story through the Character of Cross. I, O'Brien describes his moral dilemma about going to Vietnam as an action in which many soldiers felt reluctant and undesicive about it.The whole context of this chapter reflects the guilty a lot service men tend to Feel about avoiding the draft and the guilt that comes up against the hatre toward their opponents in war. In other words, this chapter depicts the emotional dilemmas that a lot of soldiers are Most likely to face in war due to the atrocities they tend to commit to other humans. O'Brien portrays the experience of many soldiers that are confused between defending their countries in war and the loose of their principles and consciousness

telling, and he usually equates the two when explaining the writing craft. He was encouraged

“One day you are having lunch with some guys from another unit, trading stories about home and what you’re gonna do when you get back to the world. And then the next day they’re dead” writes Afghanistan veteran and retired US Army Corporal Eric Porter. He goes on to describe how war transforms a person, “Your view of the world changes, you have seen and done things no other person in the world would understand besides you and your fellow brothers at war” (Personal Communication, October 20, 2016). With great frequency, one encounters a veteran wearing a baseball cap that says “Vietnam Veteran”. A sullen, bearded face or a bright eyed warrior with wrinkles that tell friends’ death stories— each veteran must learn to process and cope with what he has seen. Violence destroys sanity in every war, but it is not the only culprit. Each major modern American conflict had its own calling card, an individual characteristic that in itself could cause nightmares, but when coupled with violence, irreversibly alters minds. In World War I, it was the trenches, an unsanitary formidable enemy of both sides. In World War II, it was the concentration camps, bastions for sub-human treatment of those a deranged leader viewed as inferior. In Vietnam, it was the jungle, and the various problems associated with guerilla warfare in such a diverse and unforgiving habitat. In his fictional piece The Things They Carried, Vietnam Veteran Tim O’brien uses stories to illustrate the realities of war.