Analysis Of Where Have You Gone By Tim Obrien

Paul escaped serious physical wounds; however, he is completely destroyed by the effects of the war. After being mercilessly attacked with gas, he sees the brutality and lack of concern for the soldiers’ lives. Although he is continuously pressured by authority figures to see the opposing fighter as the main enemy, Paul understands the problem goes beyond killing other men. The war tears Paul apart and leaves him scarred by the lack of

"A wounded soldier? I shout to him-no answer- must be dead." The dead body has fallen out the coffin and the coffin has been unearthed because of the shelling. Even the dead and buried cannot rest in peace during this war. This just adds to the horror of the situation Paul is in.

He uses death, tragedies, and brutal events to show the reader the stomach-turning way of life in war. Remarque makes Paul very ostentatious so to speak. He uses all these graphic images to get a point across. Paul explains during a bombardment, horses are hit as well as the men. “Those are the wounded horses. But not all of them. Some gallop away in the distance, fall down, and then run farther. The belly of one is ripped open, the guts trail out. He becomes tangled in them and falls, then he stands up again” (28). The screams of the horses become implanted in the men’s heads, even though they cannot see them. Another gruesome image is that the soldiers go to take cover in a nearby cemetery. Paul illustrates the scene, “With a crash something bears down on us. It lands close beside us; a coffin thrown up” (31). Even the dead are being disturbed by the war. Paul wants it to seem as if the once dead are coming back to life. The last major imagery scene would be in the hospitals. The hospitals are a symbol of war. “It must be all lies and o no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out, these torture-chambers in their hundreds of thousands. A hospital alone shows what war is” (117). War is about killing another living thing. Once you are hit, you go to these “torture-chambers”. You go there

Paul’s books symbolize the shadow of war through the horrid violence limiting his connections to humanity. Paul’s book illustrate how the impacts by war stole his innocence and removed all his feelings to life when he tries to reconnect to the books to give sentimental meaning and revival. For instance, Paul enters his room filled with books of his childhood where he lived before the war. He turns to his books for rebirth to to once again “ feel the same

While on leave, Paul also visits his father and some of his father's friends, but does not wish to speak to them about the war. The men are "curious [about the war] in a way that [Paul finds] stupid and distressing." They try to imagine what war is like but they have never experienced it for themselves, so they cannot see the reality of it. When Paul tries to state his opinion, the men argue that "[he] sees only [his] general sector so [he is] not able to judge." These men believe they know more about the war and this makes Paul feel lost. He realizes that "they are different men here, men [he] can not understand..." and Paul wants to be back with those he can relate to, his fellow soldiers. Paul wishes he had never gone on leave because out there "[he] was a soldier, but [at home] he is nothing but an agony to himself." When Paul returns to the battlefield, he is excited to be with his comrades. When he sees his company, "[Paul] jumps up, pushes in amongst them, [his] eyes searching," until he finds his friends. It is then

Similar to the convergence of physical issues, the soldiers had a similar emotional trauma experienced. The mass death that was a consequence of the physical carnage of the war could easily lead to emotional distress due to the nature of death. Consider in All Quiet on the Western Front when the soldiers had to seek protection in a graveyard when “heavy fire” overtook them, what Paul thought about the event described the messed up mental side of the soldiers regarding death (Remarque 65). Primarily, when trying to escape the bombs and gas, and Paul had to hide in a coffin, he realized that the coffin “shall protect [Paul], thought death himself lies in it,” (Remarque 67). This whole statement can be analyzed as Paul coming to the understanding that the only way to

We can hardly control ourselves when our glance lights on the form of some other man. We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill” (Remarque 116). Paul’s description of himself and his comrades does not sound human; rather, it sounds as if he were describing a pack of wolves. Furthermore, when Paul becomes trapped in the middle ground during a skirmish, he realizes he must defend himself. A French soldier jumps into his hole, forcing Paul to kill him. Paul “strike[s] madly at home and feel[s] only how the body suddenly convulses” without any thought (Remarque 216). The language employed by Remarque suggests Paul’s behavior is animalistic and brutal. His mad stabs into the body of the Frenchman imply the violent and impersonal nature of man that coincides with war.

Paul has his first real encounter with death when his friend Kemmerich dies in the hospital. The realization that he and his friends can and will die makes the war suddenly real to Paul. He battles with internal opposing forces of hope and despair, as he grows from an ignorant child to an educated veteran. He begins to

A war has been raging in the jungle and rice paddies of Vietnam. Many have died from other people and mines. Tim O'Brien was born in the time known as the baby boom. The babies born in this time, when they were older, ended up fighting in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War lasted for eighteen years (1956-1975)(Smith 1). O'Brien wrote "Where Have You Gone Charming Billy" in 1975 to protest against the war. The military draft rarely happens, so when it happened for the Vietnam War everyone was surprised. Many did not want to join, which caused mass protests against a war we didn't have to enter. In the story, Paul Berlin is the main character. When he first arrives in Vietnam, he watches one soldier named Billy Boy get his foot blown off. Billy Boy reacts so much that he gave himself a heart attack. Tim O'Brien develops his theme you can not let fear take control in his short story "Where Have You Gone Charming, Billy" through the use of setting, mood, and characterization.

O’Brien’s story of his adventure in combat was a very emotional version of how scary the war can be, encouraging people to stay out of combat, and life afterwards. Although, “Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?” is a fictional story, it expresses very true moments that O’Brien experienced during his

While providing his service at the front, Paul slowly began to lose his old personality of gentleness and compassion towards others as he would fight and kill his enemies while sealing horrific and traumatizing images in his mind. As Paul is on the front during battle Paul begins to comprehend his loss of old self-desires and his

Paul does not allow himself to reconnect with his dying mother and family, this causes him to regret leaving the front line it makes him realize that he has reopened the emotional wounds and thoughts that the soldiers train themselves to become accustomed too. Paul believes that no one at home understands the tragedy of the war. It proves the alienation that springs from the soldier’s disconnection that comes along with being in the war “I ought never to have come here. Out there I was indifferent and often hopeless; I will never be able to be so again. I was a soldier, and now I am nothing but an agony for myself, for my mother, for everything that is so comfortless and without end.” (Pg.

When Paul returns to his town for leave, he sees just how warped everyone else's view is on the current situation of the war. A teacher from his old school talks to him about the war that is filled with death and violence as

The soldiers have grown accustomed to the horrors of war, but they have been forced to endure it for so long that by this point they are all close to breaking. They can no longer envision any life other than the endless repeated days of the war. Paul states that war is almost like a virus. For the longest time, Paul and his comrades have fought off the virus, but they are too weak, too tired, and too hopeless. With this growing fragileness of their brains, the virus is slowly infecting the soldiers. They start to think that their end is coming; and maybe it’s not a bad thing. Germany is losing the war, more people are dying every day, and the ones who are alive can’t take much more.

Paul’s experiences guarding over the Russian prisoners demonstrate the unwavering tendency of war to create suffering and sorrow. In the prison camp, the Russians are malnourished and starving. Paul sees their suffering, yet he is unable to truly understand them because he knows none of their history. As Paul describes, “their life is obscure and guiltless.” In this sense, Paul feels the pitilessness that is expressed to a greater degree in the other guards, whom Paul watches as they beat and mistreat the prisoners. The behavior of these soldiers highlights the tendency of war to dehumanize people - both prisoners, who are often horribly subjugated, and soldiers, who have their emotions completely destroyed, suffer the negative effects of wars.