Speaking Of Courage 'And War Photograph, By Tim O' Brien

Tim O’Brien composed an amazing book about his views towards the Vietnam war and his life during his time serving in the war. He brings you a different perspective that changes with time and as he becomes hardened to the tragedies of war. Despite his obvious bias he has created an intriguing story that can open the eyes of many to different subjects and the reality that is war.

While the Vietnam War was a complex political pursuit that lasted only a few years, the impact of the war on millions of soldiers and civilians extended for many years beyond its termination. Soldiers killed or were killed; those who survived suffered from physical wounds or were plagued by PTSD from being wounded, watching their platoon mates die violently or dealing with the moral implications of their own violence on enemy fighters. Inspired by his experiences in the war, Tim O’Brien, a former soldier, wrote The Things They Carried, a collection of fictional and true war stories that embody the

The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.

The Vietnam War was a controversial conflict that plagued the United States for many years. The loss of life caused by the war was devastating. For those who came back alive, their lives were profoundly changed. The impact the war had on servicemen would affect them for the rest of their lives; each soldier may have only played one small part in the war, but the war played a huge part in their lives. They went in feeling one way, and came home feeling completely different. In the book Vietnam Perkasie, W.D. Ehrhart describes his change from a proud young American Marine to a man filled with immense confusion, anger, and guilt over the atrocities he witnessed and participated in during the war.

During the Vietnam War, countless young men were sent off to war to die. These young men had not much involvement in the conflict, but nonetheless, they were sent off to war by the government. Due to their lack of experience and the brutal methods of warfare used during the war, millions of young men tragically died. Tim O’ Brien – a veteran of this brutal war– wrote numerous stories regarding what he encountered in the war. In the Things They Carried, Tim wrote two stories about a man he killed during the war.

The Vietnam War generates the idea that time in violent environments can impact a person's emotional and physical health causing that person to lose sight of their morals and ethics. This is proven true in Tim O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried. In O’Brien’s novel the author delivers to the reader a variety of war stories from unique perspectives of many American soldiers. By this, the reader can observe that O'Brien's narrations of war stories reveals the difficulties of the war and the purposelessness of it.

Tim O’Brien managed to survive the Vietnam war virtually unharmed, and gained countless stories and a subject to write about along the way. Tim O’Brien has written several books about the Vietnam War and the experiences of being a combat. Tim O’Brien has been obsessed with stories

Starting with Tim O’Brien’s short story he immerses the reader in the experience of fighting in the Vietnam War through the use of imagery, parallelism, and figurative language. Tim O’Brien describes an event that occurred in the middle of his Vietnam experience. He catalogs variety of things his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company brought on their missions.

In Tim O’Brien’s historical fiction novel The Things They Carried, O’Brien uses a character also called Tim O’Brien to tell about experiences from the Vietnam War (1954-57). In the chapter, “How to Tell a True War Story”, O’Brien states “a true war story is never moral.” (65) War is not only horrid and unsightly, it also affects a soldiers’ mental make-up. Filled with death and gore, the Vietnam War has the capability to leave soldiers physically and mentally unstable. O’Brien begins his journey as a frightened, inexperienced young man, terrified of the great dishonor that follows evading the war. Tim O’Brien departs the Vietnam War full of remorse then tells short stories throughout the novel, The Things They Carried, about the Vietnam war as a coping skill. To show vivid emotions O’Brien uses the novel to fill in the blanks of his memories. Indulging in The Things They Carried is comparable to sitting in a living room, having a conversation with a war veteran.

Before I read this book, I had a limited understanding – it’s still limited due to the fact that I’m not a soldier, nor have I fought in a war – of how those who fight these wars for us are truly affected by the actions required. When we think of a soldier returning from war, we think of them as a hero, which they are, but we fail to think of how they’re could be feeling about the things they had to do. We fail to understand that PTSD is real and common in many soldiers; we fail to understand that we shouldn’t treat them as a “ticking time bomb” , but rather a fellow citizen that needs our help and understanding. We fail to see them as anything more than a soldier; we fail to see their humanity. This book opens up this disconnect a little more. Though the characters are fictional, we are still able to see real feelings that soldier face during and after the war, thanks to O’Brien’s experience. Though there still isn’t a perfect understanding of these feelings that soldiers face after war, the book has helped me to understand just how big this disconnect is. Though these feelings very well could be felt after any war that the nation has fought in, I feel like disconnect between veterans and civilians was broadened after soldiers returned from Vietnam. Civilians had seen on the television, for the first time,

War is an experience that is difficult to understand and describe. Imagine coming back from war and not having the love, comfort, or support from your loved ones to help you move on with your life. How would one feel in that situation? According to the way Tim O’Brien told the stories of the soldiers in The Things They Carried, they either knew how to cope or didn’t.

Wars are a difficult place to be. “THE VIETNAM WAR transformed a generation” (Roberts 1). With all that happened during the war such as exposure to

Visualize that you were sent away to war in Vietnam to fight for the U.S. At the war, you saved many people’s lives with your intelligence and courage, becoming a war hero that represents the strength of the U.S. to many citizens. Now imagine that the war has ended, yet you are unable to return home due to unforeseen circumstances. You have a spouse and son at home waiting for you, yet you are unable to return home to them, as you are under the influence of a higher power. Over the previous ten years, you have gone on many adventures, traveling the world and overcoming obstacles of hardship and violence. Think back to when you first were sent away for war, and compare that to who you currently are.

The short story that will be discussed, evaluated, and analyzed in this paper is a very emotionally and morally challenging short story to read. Michael Meyer, author of the college text The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, states that the author of How to Tell a True War Story, Tim O’Brien, “was drafted into the Vietnam War and received a Purple Heart” (472). His experiences from the Vietnam War have stayed with him, and he writes about them in this short story. The purpose of this literary analysis is to critically analyze this short story by explaining O’Brien’s writing techniques, by discussing his intended message and how it is displayed, by providing my own reaction,

The United Nations, with its rigid moral and political limitations against force, has become a benchmark of peace and a social achievement of modern times. From war torn Europe, the United Nations developed from five major powers with an initial goal to prevent the spread of warfare through peaceful means and to establish and maintain fundamental human rights. Through the past fifty years, this organization has broadened its horizons with auxiliary organizations from peace keeping missions to humanitarian aid, to economic development. However, in a modern example of ethnic cleansing, the UN faces new a new role as a bystander as its power is bypassed by NATO forces. The UN, however, promises to be an