He Would Do Better Once He Heard The Sea Analysis

To be engaged in war is to be engaged in an armed conflict. Death is an all too ordinary product of war. It is an unsolicited reward for many soldiers that are fighting for their country’s own fictitious freedom. For some of these men, the battlefield is a glimpse into hell, and for others, it is a means to heaven. Many people worry about what happens during war and what will become of their loved ones while they’re fighting, but few realize what happens to those soldiers once they come home. The short stories "Soldier's Home” by Ernest Hemingway and "Speaking of Courage” by Tim O'Brien explore the thematic after effects of war and how it impacts a young person's life. Young people who

This quote in the first chapter of the book sets the overall tone. The author Tim O’Brien uses his language through out the book in an extremely straightforward manner. He does not sugar coat the way going to war and being in a war is. He does not use stories of heroes,

Individuals everywhere grimace at war. Images of the strike of the gun, the burst of the bombs, and the clash of the soldiers all elicit a wince and a shiver. Moviegoers close their eyes during gory battle scenes and open them again only once the whine of the bullets stops rattling in their ears. War is hell, as the common aphorism goes, and the pain of war is equally hellish. Most individuals naturally accept this conclusion despite never experiencing war themselves. Without enduring the actual pain of war injuries, individuals still argue the importance war and its miseries. Individuals rely on media and entertainment for education about the suffering and evils of war. Writers provide an acute sense of a soldier’s physical and mental

First, the reader must understand just what makes a good "war story". The protagonist of the novel, Tim O'Brien, gives us his

People who have never experienced the war portray it as “grotesque.” (O’Brien 77) They’ve never truly listened to the soldier's stories, Tim O’Brien is able to find beauty within the “awful majesty of combat.” (O’Brien 77) The metaphor comparing the “trace rounds” to “brilliant red ribbons” illustrate the war in a completely different light. (O’Brien 77) The respect for “the fluid symmetries of troops” shows the organization of the war and the training and preparing that the troops do to serve our country and protect Americans. (O’Brien 77) There is beauty within these individuals and their stories of why they decided to risk their lives to protect us. Tim O’Brien’s simile comparing a “bombing raid” or “artillery barrage” to “a killer forest fire” or “cancer under a microscope” explains the “aesthetic purity” within the war. (O’Brien 77) Tim O’Brien puts the war into an idea that his readers can understand, he proves it’s possible to find beauty even in a

The purpose of this novel was for Tim O’Brien to try and cope with his painful memories from the war. The whole novel “The Things They Carried” was composed of different stories and memories from O’Brien’s experience in war. In all of these stories, you can sense pain, hardships and a sense of a burden on your shoulders. That is the way of knowing that O’Brien was almost venting, trying to get those painful memories and feelings out of his system and onto paper instead. He also intended for the audience to feel these pains and truly understand where his pain comes from. He wanted to give the audience a small experience from it, while trying to escape from himself and his memories. This becomes obvious in the chapter “Ambush” where his daughter asks if he had killed anyone before.

At the time, many that were drafted into the war didn’t know what they were fighting for and why they were there. Not only is war physically exhausting, but many soldiers suffered from psychotic breaks and from PTSD. A method to interpret Tim O'Brien's experience in war is to look at his mental state through Psychoanalytical Criticism.

War changes people and Tim O’ Brien is a great example because in The Things they Carried, the novel observes a struggle to conquer grief and the struggle to deal with death; which shows the human side. The story displays strong sentiment and lets the reader sympathize with the characters, especially Tim O’ Brien. Tim O’ Brien permits the spectators to feel the emotion by writing this fictional story.

Tim O’Brien represents in his book The Things They Carried very well how the war changed the life of the soldiers. When they came to the war they were teenager, who were in one way very excited and proud to fight. The war did not just changed the view of the soldiers about the war, it also changed how the soldiers perceived what happened. The perception from soldiers change during the war, because soldiers started to perceive happening differently than it actually happened in reality.

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.

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”.

This experience, above all other wartime horrors, changed the writer-to-be’s perspective on warfare and the human condition that causes it.

When people think of war what comes to mind is death, torture, and destruction. War instills fear since everyone dreads involvement in the ordeal (Mazlish 10). The experience of war leaves people with physical and psychological scars. Tim Obrien in “The Things they Carried” brings to light the tribulations faced by the soldiers in their quest to restore peace. He asserts, ‘war is hell (Brien 8).’This is an exhilarating story that brings to light the fact that, despite their participation in the war, soldiers are still human. Stanley Kubrick echoes Obrien’s sentiments in his award winning film the Full Metal Jacket. Both highlight the ugly truths of war as full of cruelties and absurdities. The experience of war for the soldiers shows that they are still human with feelings and emotions (Mazlish 11). For some, their emotions grow stronger while others undergo mental anguish and breakdowns, but whatever the case nobody is ever the same again.

“War is hell, but that 's not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War is what makes you a man; war makes you dead.”In the autobiography “The things they Carried”author Tim O’Brien, gives his readers insight to the trials,horrors and romances of the Vietnam war.As a young man Mr.O’Brien was forced into the war by the Draft lottery a Selective Service System of the United States conducted to determine the order of call to military service in the Vietnam War for men born from 1944 to 1950. Entering into the Vietnam War Mr.O’Brien, knew he was neither prepared nor made for the harsh realities of armed combat.However after taking a life awakening journey to the Tip Top Inn Mr.O’Brien knew what he had to do, so he went to war.In the story “The things they Carried” Mr.O’Brien not only tells his account of the war but gives account to his fellow soilders version of the war like the young medic Marc Fossie who flew his high school sweetheart May Ann Bell to the base, transforming the book into a love story. Or when fellow soldier Curt Lemon dies and the story turns into somewhat of a shakespearean tragedy.Even when the War is over writer Tim O’brien explains to his audience about how savilians respond to his “war story” and how he told a true war stories are not about living in the moment but surviving for

To begin, war is an intense, life, and death experience. When O’Brien writes his story he makes a conscious effort to not blur the boundaries between reality and fiction. The seriousness of war is very traumatic and emotional. Therefore, it was difficult for the storyteller to abstain from adding fiction. Also, the story teller often times does not state the whole situation, holding back and omitting facts on purpose. For example, the book describes a