Northern Lights Book Report

As stated in the thesis, Timothy O’Brien also writes his short story, “How to tell a True War Story,” in the first person narrative, although the style in which he narrates is quite different than from the style in “A & P.’’ O’Brien, who was an actual soldier in the Vietnam War takes on more of an autobiographical approach to telling his “true war story.”

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 main character and story line is based off true stories of the author, Tim O’Brien’s experiences in the Vietnam War. In the present, O’Brien is 68 and is a well rounded individual with a bold personality for a Vietnam veteran.

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.

“Fiction is the lie that helps us understand the truth.” This quote by Minnesota author and veteran, Tim O 'Brien, displays his passion for writing stories that make truth come to life. Tim O’Brien is a remarkable man who has positively affected the world through his literary works regarding the Vietnam War. His personal life and authorship through his military experience, have led to making him one of the most influential war authors to date.

The article Understanding Tim O’Brien by Steven Kaplan states, “Tim O’Brien was inducted into the United States Army in August of 1968. His first seven months were spent in Vietnam, stationed about four or five miles from the American base in Chu Lai. The place was called Landing Zone Gator. Storytelling and imagination are major themes in Tim O’Brien’s fiction. His awareness in these specific topics come from the environment, in which he was raised.

It is generally recognized that Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato (1978) is most likely the best novel of the Vietnam war, albeit an unusual one in that it innovatively combines the experiential realism of war with surrealism, primarily through the overactive imagination of the protagonist, Spec Four Paul Berlin. The first chapter of this novel is of more than usual importance. Designed to be a self-sufficient story (McCaffery 137) and often anthologized as one, this chapter is crucial to the novel in that it not only introduces us to the characters and the situation but also sets the tenor of the novel and reveals its author’s view of this war in relation to which all else in the novel must be

Tim O’Brien brings the Vietnam War back to life in The Things They Carried (1990) and elucidates the wounds suffered by soldiers during and after the war. The three main characters in this novel that exemplify the physical, social, and emotional wounds are Tim O’Brien, Norman Bowker, and Mark Fossie. These men go through immense pain both during and after the war, which is not easy to heal.

The Viet Nam War has been the most reviled conflict in United States history for many reasons, but it has produced some great literature. For some reason the emotion and depredation of war kindle in some people the ability to express themselves in a way that they may not have been able to do otherwise. Movies of the time period are great, but they are not able to elicit, seeing the extremely limited time crunch, the same images and charge that a well-written book can. In writing of this war, Tim O'Brien put himself and his memories in the forefront of the experiences his characters go through, and his writing is better for it. He produced a great work of art not only because he experienced the war first hand, but because he is able to convey the lives around him in such vivid detail. He writes a group of fictional works that have a great deal of truth mixed in with them. This style of writing and certain aspects of the book are the topics of this reflective paper.

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

Tim O’Brien wrote many novels including the mysterious fiction novel, In the Lake of the Woods but is mostly known for his most popular novel The Things They Carried. In the Lake of the Woods is a novel about a couple who recently rented a cabin that is near a lake to get away from everyone and everything that is wrong with their lives. John Wade, who was running for U.S. Senate, lost the election due to his past actions in the Vietnam War at My Lai. Kathleen Wade is the spouse of John Wade, who supported john in every way for his dream of becoming a U.S. Senate. The story shows the struggle a Vietnam veteran has to go through to live a normal life. O’Brien, once again, brought the repugnant Vietnam War back into one of his novels but this

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.

Important Aspects in the Novel In the Lake of The Woods and The Vietnam in Me by Tim O’Brien

In the 18th century, a new form of art, called Romanticism developed in Europe, and reached its peak in the 19th century. One of the significant artists of the Romanticism art period was Frederick Edwin Church, a painter from New York, who portrayed landscapes. One of his remarkable works is his oil, canvas piece, Aurora Borealis, in which he portrays the Northern Lights.

The Northern Lights are an extraordinary, surreal and legendary phenomenon. They are magical: if you have already observed them in nature, you know that words fail to describe this breathtaking spectacle. Out in the wide open darkness, nature’s spectacular display takes on an added dimension when the glowing ribbons of light are accompanied by the howling of wolves.