Combat Zone Loss

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.

This theme of fear of shame and humiliation also occurs in the chapter “Rainy River,” where O’Brien goes to fight in the Vietnam War despite of his beliefs and morals, to avoid bringing shame to himself and his loved ones.

Through The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien moves beyond the horror of fighting in the Vietnam War to examine with sensitivity and insight the nature of courage and fear. Included, is a collection of interrelated stories. A few of the stories are brutal, while others are flawed, blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. All the stories, however, deal with one platoon. Some are about the wartime experiences of soldiers, and others are about a 43-year-old writer reminiscing about his platoon’s experiences. In the beginning chapter, O’Brien rambles about the items the soldiers carry into battle, ranging from can openers, pocketknives, and mosquito repellent o

The Vietnam War had a life changing effect on the soldiers, including O 'Brien. They came into the war as boys as young as seventeen and left either in body bags made of their own poncho or they came out alive. But were they ever really alive? No, they had their innocence ripped out. They weren 't young boys anymore. Their young selves were killed out in that jungle and all that was left was a carcass of gruesome memories of the tragedy of war, the deaths of their fellow soldiers. They changed as people. O 'Brien came into the war as a young man against war. A young soul believing that the Vietnam War was wrong and there was no need for fighting or killing. However, toward the end of the book he tells us the story of how he got revenge on a fellow soldier. This soldier, while in the middle of war, took too long in treating O 'Brien for a bullet wound and also should have treated him for shock. O 'Brien almost dies on the field but fortunately

Tim O’Brien wrote a memoir, in which he wrote about his life as a Vietnam soldier, called If I Die in a Combat Zone. Raised in Worthington, Minnesota, Tim O’Brien was influenced by wars while growing up (particularly the Korean War). Soon landing in the training facility at Fort Lewis in Washington, O’Brien’s life was about to change. In If I Die in a Combat Zone, author Tim O'Brien argued that the Vietnam War was full of courage through how the soldiers chose to stay and battle for their nation, his depictions of Plato, and through O’Brien’s experiences of his fellow soldier’s deaths.

Everyday life is great at making you who you are or what you have become. It is amazing how one choice or event can change someones life. This is especially true when it comes to the Vietnam War. There were so many lives that changed during this time. The Vietnam War brought us the end of the draft and instated a volunteer army which we still have to this day. This war also helped give the right for 18 year olds to vote which was a big help to Nixon’s second term as president. With this said the Vietnam War has greatly affected America and Tim O’Brien is one of those people. O’Brien says he wasn't into the war however I think he eventually discovered a new form of happiness from creating his amazing stories with his experiences in the

Tim O'Brien is confused about the Vietnam War. He is getting drafted into it, but is also protesting it. He gets to boot camp and finds it very difficult to know that he is going off to a country far away from home and fighting a war that he didn't believe was morally right. Before O'Brien gets to Vietnam he visits a military Chaplin about his problem with the war. "O'Brien I am really surprised to hear this. You're a good kid but you are betraying you country when you say these things"(60). This says a lot about O'Brien's views on the Vietnam War. In the reading of the book, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tim O'Brien explains his struggles in boot camp

Mareez Reyes once said, “One of the hardest lessons in life is letting go. We fight to hold on and we fight to let go” (Reyes). This quote shows relationship to Tim O’Brien because he struggles with letting go of situations that occurred during the war. O’Brien wants to put his hurt in the past, but the memories haunt him in his everyday life, so he writes stories in order to cope. The Vietnam war was a war that many people did not support, innocent young men were drafted to fight for their lives and country without having a choice.

O’Brien, forty-three years old, dates back to when he “was drafted to fight a war he hated.” He planned on attending Harvard for a graduate study on a full-ride scholarship. He was way “Too smart, too compassionate, too everything ”: he knew what he wanted to do and who he was; although, the Vietnam war had no interest for the lives of its soldiers. For Tim O’Brien, he was pulled from Minnesota; for other soldiers, they were pulled from their respective hometowns-- all were taken out of comfortability to devastation. This memory moment, along with others, develops the setting by displaying

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.

O’Brien thought the war was unjust because he didn't feel the need of America being involved with Vietnam, he had spoken with the Chaplain and told him that he believed human life was very valuable, they know good from bad and should pursue what is good.(56) Chaplain responded to that by telling o'brien that by saying that he's basically betraying his country and told him to have faith.(57) He was drafted away from his family and went through intense training, he would also visit the library very often in order to learn the terms the other soldiers would

Ultimately, this novel is not about Vietnam--in fact, it is not about war at all. It is about the narrator 's attempt to find a place where the erosion of time will have no effect. By working through the "threads" of this novel, O 'Brien 's intentions become obvious: He is fighting to preserve the physical against deterioration, and by extension, to preserve life by immortalizing it in fiction. He is not writing as a result of neurosis or as a form of therapy; he does this since

If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O’Brien, is an autobiographical story in which he describes his duty in the Vietnam War. With this book, he puts into words the struggle of living in a war, and uses dialogue to set an image of the events that the characters went through in the reader's head. O'Brien argued that the Vietnam War was morally and spiritually depriving through his depictions of people's point of view, how the army's actions seemed brutal, and the description of the traits each character contained.

The ended up being innocent, making them mere bystanders caught between a death filled war. Although war results in many different outcomes, a person's mental and emotional state are one of the most important things that can be influenced. War veteran Tim O’Brien emphasizes that while occurring years ago, he still has events from his time in service come back to haunt him. He states, “Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don’t. In the ordinary hours of life I try not to dwell on it, but now and then, when I’m reading a newspaper or just sitting alone in a room, I’ll look up to see the young man coming out of the morning fog.” (O’Brien 2) This emotional and mental trauma can last a lifetime. O’Brien’s experience happened years ago, but he could vividly see the same events occuring in his daily life. No matter what he does, the stress is always there with him. His case is not special and far from it as many people who live through or return from a war deal with signs of deep emotional shock that can have a dour influence on their lives for years to come. However, one of the most eye-opening aspects of war is

Soldiers are trained in military bases, where they learn the craft of warfare before being sent to combat. They are prepared physically and mentally, but nothing compares to the real situations in battle. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien says “ It was my fourth day [...] I felt a moist sickness rise up in my throat. I sat down beside the pigpen, closed my eyes, put my head between knees,” (O’Brien, 214). This quote demonstrates how O’Brien is unable to deal with death, even though he was prepared to confront it. O’Brien mental state starts to deteriorate and he seems to have an emotional breakdown. For example, “ The young soldier stood off by himself at the center of the field [...] the boy’s face was impossible to make out. The filth seemed to erase identities,” (O’Brien, 156). In this moment,