Essay about If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien

At the beginning of the novel, Tim O’Brien portrays a strong image against war and him being drafted. He felt like war had no positives, leaving himself to only see the negatives. As he stated, “It all seemed crazy and impossible. Twenty-one years old, an ordinary kid with all the ordinary dreams and ambitions, and all I wanted was to live the life I was born to...and now I was off on the margins of exile leaving my country forever, and it seemed

O’Brien casts doubt on the veracity of the story to let you experience what the war felt like for him. When him and his fellow soldiers would sit around the campfire telling stories some where obviously made up for entertainment while others actually were authentic. This is how you have to view the book as like you are there with the troops listening to these war stories and deciding for yourself whether or not you believe them. The underlying theme isn’t really the vietnam war in itself, its the act of storytelling.

After being drafted, several thoughts came to his mind. O’ Brien thought about how his life will be if he goes to war. He states, “I imagined myself dead. I imagined myself doing things I could not do- charging and enemy position, taking aim at another human being” (44). It seems that O’Brien thought about his principles and morals as a human being. He believes killing innocent people was not a heroic act; it was an act of shame. On the other hand, he clarifies that not all wars are negative, “There were occasions, when a nation was justified in using military force to achieve it ends” (44). He considered to fight only in the cases were war is necessary to achieve a significant purpose. O’Brien uses examples of Hitler, referring him as an evil and one of the reasons he would have validated a war, and even joined the military if it were necessary. Yet, he does not want to play hero in a war that had not sense. For that reason, he decided to run away from his draft.

Furthermore, O’Brien himself admits he went to war not out of courage, but out of embarrassment and cowardice. In the chapter “On The Rainy River,” O’Brien received a draft letter for the Vietnam War. He was in shock, “I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, to everything. It couldn’t happen. I was above it. A mistake, maybe—a foul up in the paperwork. I was no soldier… I remember the rage in my stomach. Later it burned down to a smoldering self-pity, then to numbness” (41-42). Obviously, O’Brien did not want to go to war. However, he was

Prior to learning he was drafted into a war he hated, we are told that he had recently graduated from college (38). O’Brien says, “I was twenty-one years old. Young, yes, and politically naive, but even so the American war in Vietnam seemed to me wrong” (38). The previous quote shows his confusion towards the war, he then goes on questioning the war by saying, “Was it a civil war? A war of national liberation or simple aggression?” (38) which furthermore provides an example of his uncertainty towards the war. While facing confusion, O’Brien also believed he was “too smart, too passionate” (39) for the war, he claims his drafting was “a mistake, maybe— a foul-up in the paperwork” (39). Both of the quotes show man vs. society conflict. Since O'Brien had recently graduated and received a full scholarship at Harvard, he felt like he was on top of the world, like any other person would if a war was not going on then, society was focused on something he didn't believe so he did not want to accept the harsh reality that he had just been drafted. The narrator also faces man vs self conflict, O’Brien wants to get out of the draft but, he says, “There was no happy way out...my health was solid; I didn't qualify for CO status — no religious grounds, no history as a pacifist” (41). O’Brien knows that it would be illegal to not follow the law of the draft but he also knows that he does NOT want to

In If I die In a Combat Zone by Tim O’Brien, the author shows how the hatred of war can cause remorse and sadness through memories. He uses his experiences as a radio operator in Vietnam war to showcase the range of emotions he was feeling at the time. O’Brien shows this by using memories and his comrades to paint a picture on how the war in Vietnam affected him for the rest of his life. O’Brien shows how he felt about the war through memories. Even though he opposes the war he still finds himself unable to disconnect from it.

The war has changed O'Brien in many ways, it has taught him lessons, shown him things he has never seen before, been in situations that were virtually difficult situations to be in. He entered the war as a younger man who was scared of what would come to be if he tried to dodge the draft and war. He was afraid of the shame it would bring to him and his family. Although he contemplated dodging the war he ultimatley came to going to Vietnam and joining the fight. From this, O'Brien comes out of the war with horrific stories and events that took place reselling them throughout the novel so that the reader could get a clear understanding of the misconceptions of war and what it truly is. As said, " In a true war story, if theirs a moral at all,

Men have always viewed a love or need for a woman as a weakness. This is especially true in the U.S. military, where violence is sexualized and women are viewed as unnecessary. In a way, this is done to make life in the army easier because their are no women in the majority of their time. During an occupation, the local women have to incur the wrath of men trained to see them as something below human. Tim O'Brien exemplifies this in his novel, If I Die in a Combat Zone, where the soldiers in Vietnam mistreat the women used for sexual purposes like strippers and prostitutes, yet treat women in the villages as if they were their mothers. Soldiers at war, far away from the women in their lives, leads

O’Brien’s feelings towards going to the war starts to change when he says,“I couldn’t endure the mockery, or the disgrace, or the patriotic ridicule”(57). He discovers that he has more pride than to just run away from the draft. “I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war”(58).After his change in thought he still feels like he did the wrong thing for himself but knows on the inside that it was the best thing to do.

This novel is not considered a memoir of Tim O’Brien’s war experiences as a solider in Vietnam because a memoir is a work of non-fiction and some parts of The Things They Carried are fiction.

He knows that being willing to die so that he will not be embarrassed does not make him brave. He also wishes he could be truly brave and stand up for what he believes in--truly believing that Vietnam is wrong--but something holds him back. Knowing it is fear and shame. O’Brien does not want to be called a coward, so he goes to war. Even years later, he sees this as pathetic. But despite the grievances of the war, each fellow comrade and friend of his, had their own interpretation of right and wrong whether or not that agrees with our personal “morals”, today (times have obviously greatly changed). As individuals, it agreed with them during their time of service and more specifically, in combat. This is vital to the development of the story as a whole because each and every one of them provides a struggle between war, circumstances and reality. Ultimately, The Things They Carried suggests that, in war, the conventions of good and evil in civilized society fall by the wayside. After Rat Kiley loses his best friend, Curt Lemon, to a booby trap he tortures a baby water buffalo as everyone else looks on. No one tries to stop it. Mitchell Sanders says that in Vietnam there are new sins created that have never existed before. War re-defines morality, it changes the definition. Even the purpose of being there is lost on the soldiers when they are down

Tim O’Brien spoke to the Lovett Upper School in a very grim and upfront manner, careful to not “sugarcoat” any of the harsh realities from the War, which veterans have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. In a sense, O’Brien’s rash visualization of his brutal war stories was a necessary evil in explaining the war to a group of uninformed individuals. He spoke to show the confusion of the war, sharing many stories of despair and triumph in the jungles and fields of Vietnam. In many ways, the student body represents what was at the time of the war the American civilian population. While draftees were thrown into battle, the people in the United States were oblivious to the treacherous nature of combat. There seemingly was no preparation for a

Have you read a book that contains feelings like guilt, shame, love, and embarrassment? Or have you asked yourself why people did not want to go to the Vietnam war? Tim O’ Brien is the one of ones who did not want to go to Vietnam. In fact, he went to the war, and he was a soldier in Vietnam. When he got out of the military, he decided to write a book, The Things They Carried.

In the chapter, “The Lives of the Dead”, Tim O’Brien focuses on an episode from his childhood rather than one from the war. This creates confusion because O’Brien’s entire story is centered around his experiences in the Vietnam War. Although he does not directly use or refer to the word “war”, the episode does contribute to the theme of the book. Earlier in the book O’Brien explains that stories and memories were what kept him alive. Meanwhile, in “The Lives of the Dead”, he says, “We kept the dead alive with stories” (“The Lives of the Dead” P.226).

To begin with, O’Brien becomes a victim of the war after he is shot. “It’s not a movie and you aren’t a hero and all you can do is whimper and wait” (O'Brien 236). As he feels his life slipping away, he isn’t content with dying from a shot in the rear. It wouldn’t have been a heroic death saving a comrade, it would have been a pitiful death. He was powerless and his only hope was for the medic, Jorgenson, to get the balls to save him. His