Tim O Brien Character Analysis

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.

With this part of the story, O’Brien is able to inject the theme of shame motivating the characters in the book. This chapter is about how the author, who is also the narrator, is drafted for the war. He runs away to the border between Canada and the United States, he stays in a motel with an old man for about a week and finds that he should go to war for his country. In the beginning it was about shame, he didn’t want to look like a coward because in truth he was scared. He was afraid to face the pressures of war, the humiliation and the fact of losing “everything”. This man was an average person who lived an average life with no problems, until he got the notice about the war, which caused the shame and fear of being seen as a bad person to come out.

Through the initial characterization of young Tim, O’Brien suggests that when faced with unexpected life changing dilemmas people will more often than naught end up clouded judgement and panic. Young Tim is ambitious and well educated, he is on his way to Harvard University on a scholarship. His life is heading in the best direction possible. This is until he receives the draft letter. His ideals “hurtling down a huge black funnel” and all he can do is “nothing …wait.” His helpless soon becomes rage, rage towards the government who’s motives for the war “were shrouded in uncertainty”. He is “too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything.” “Why don’t they “draft some back-to-the-stone-age hawk?” Why must he, who doesn’t support this “uncertain” war “put [his] own precious fluids on the line.” As “the rage in [his] stomach” “burned down” he soon

The short story “On The Rainy River” is written through the perspective of O’Brien in present day and as a young faced with a draft notice for Vietnam War. In “On The Rainy River,” O’brien portrays the importance of bravery in an individual through the use of symbolism, powerful tone, and reflective point of view.

20) O’Brien tells how these young men were drafted which were constantly in fear, they wished to be there obliviously but war takes up all of one’s attention; it played a big role in their life, changing their tactics, personality and becoming a new person. O’Brien uses this to show the stressful moments in war where one has pressure to be alive and in this case to fit in with everyone else and feel part of something, in a lonely place such as the war.

Going into a war one expects the normal outcomes of leaving with pride, courage, strength and hopefully alive. Throughout the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, the reader realizes that leaving war like that is close to impossible. Shame is an ever present emotion and theme within the novel that is very obviously shown in many characters. The feeling of shame can change a person, impacting life forever even before or after the war is over. Believing one could leave a war without the slight feeling of guilt or pain, but only feeling strong and courageous is foolish.

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 time when I saw this the most was in the following lines, “I survived, but it’s not a happy ending I was a coward. I went to war.” In theses few closing lines that were read to the class I was taking in the idea, he did his civic duty in going to war when he had the opportunity to go to Canada. He was actually almost there and then he let the fear get the better of him and he went to a war that he hardly knew anything about. I remain guessing at the fact he was starting to realize that he didn’t have the desire to feel exiled from his home country and throw in the towel. Instead he went to war and came back alive regretting a lot of things that he was too afraid to

O’Brien’s feelings towards going to the war starts to change when he says,“I couldn’t endure the mockery, or the disgrace, or the patriotic ridicule”(57). He discovers that he has more pride than to just run away from the draft. “I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war”(58).After his change in thought he still feels like he did the wrong thing for himself but knows on the inside that it was the best thing to do.

     Tim O’Brien is drafted one month after graduating from Macalester College to fight a war he hated. Tim O’Brien believed he was above the war, and as a result pursued the alternative of escaping across the border to Canada. This understandable act is what Tim O’Brien considers an

Cory is naturally brilliant at sports due to his father skills. In his early years Troy played baseball as a result, Cory is now playing football. He was fantastic at playing football, same as his father was at playing baseball. That is why he was recruited. According to the reading Cory says “coach Zellman say the recruiter going be coming by to talk to you”(35). Cory was excellent at football, much like his dad at baseball. In order to be recruited he has to be skilled and get excellent grades. According to the reading Cory says, “I get good grades, Pop. That’s why the recruiter wants to talk with you. You got to keep up your grades to get recruited. This way I’ll be going to college”(36). He was a respectable student that received excellent

How maybe he was a scholar and maybe his parents were farmers.  Then O'Brien goes on to talk of maybe why this young man was in the army, and maybe why he was fighting;  these are something’s that are taught in the schools.  O'Brien states that the man may have joined because he was struggling for independence, juts like all the people that were fighting with him.  Maybe this man had been taught from the beginning that to defend the land was a mans highest duty and privilege.  Then on the other hand maybe he was not a good fighter, and maybe in poor health but had been told to fight and could not ask any questions.  These reasons are all reasons that are taught in textbooks; they go along with the idea of the draft.  Some people go fight because they want to and others go because they are told they have to. How do you tell these people apart in the heat of battle or when they are dead?  The way that O'Brien starts to describe the young man as someone who was small and frail, and maybe had plans for a bright future puts sorrow in the readers heart, in that all his plans can not happen for him or maybe the family that is longing for his return.  It also shows the regret that maybe going on in the killers’ mind.  For O'Brien to be writing on how this young mans life has come to a sudden end and his plans for the future is over is intriguing.  Then to add to that he had the story written through the eyes of the soldier that ended this young mans life.  The

When you are around someone who comes across as bitter or cranky, their attitude affects your own. Even if you are in a particularly cheerful mood, a disgruntled character can easily change your mindset. The same can happen with a content, upbeat demeanor. Mr. O’Hanlon, my science teacher, influences me by showing compassion, humility, and optimism. He has changed my entire mentality. We need to appreciate the souls who brighten our day and make our lives less boring.

Stacy O'Brien is a person who took care of an owl name Wesley for 20 years. She started off by taking care of the owl when he had a nerve damage in his wing, and the people needed somebody that had a strong feeling about owls. So, Stacy had that strong feeling about owls and took care of that owl, but Wesley wasn’t just like a normal owl, he made incredible connections with Stacy. For example, they both would go to sleep together cuddling each other and he would take care of Stacy when she got a brain tumour which was her darkest part of her life. Wesley was a really emotional owl meaning that whenever one of its mate got hurt, he would take care of it for years and years. Stacy would train the owl to its best potential and Wesley was so attached

After analyzing this episode, there are several things that I noticed that made me think about why OITNB is a successful program. First, I think how the directors chose to light each a nice composition. The way they light the inmate’s faces, the prison hallways and the outside world, really makes me feel as though this is taking place not just in a fictional world. Having the dynamic character stories help with this feeling, but as discussed before, lighting plays a large part in how we look at a specific scene. In addition to the lighting elements, the way the scenes are composed works with the overall flow of the series. Having shorter, choppy scenes creates a hardness around the show, which plays to the hardness of the situation the women