Where Have You Gone Charming Billy Analysis

Traumatized Literary devices are what make the story come alive and give the reader a feeling of actually being there. The literary devices increase a reader’s interest in the story and also helps keep the audience engaged. They help create a more fascinating plot. In the short story “Ambush” by TIm O’brien uses them to develop a character so much more. Mr. O’brien used internal conflict, external conflict, and flashback to put the reader in the character’s “shoes” throughout the story.

At the beginning of the novel, Tim O’Brien portrays a strong image against war and him being drafted. He felt like war had no positives, leaving himself to only see the negatives. As he stated, “It all seemed crazy and impossible. Twenty-one years old, an ordinary kid with all the ordinary dreams and ambitions, and all I wanted was to live the life I was born to...and now I was off on the margins of exile leaving my country forever, and it seemed

During this time he secured an internship at the Washington Post, which resulted in a full time position as a journalist. He is a passionate writer, a novelist; he published Northern Lights (1975). Northern Lights is a book telling about two sibling soldiers struggling with readjustment to civilian life in rural Minnesota. Where have you gone, charming Billy? (1975). The following book was also dominated by O’Brien’s experiences in Vietnam. Going after Cacciato (1978), a story based on a mixture of reality and fantasy. In this fictitious book, O’Brien writes about a soldier who fled the war theater to go to Paris hoping to escape the Vietnam War. Going after Cacciato won the National Book Award in fiction 1978. O’Brien also wrote The Nuclear Age (1985) this book is about a man facing his fears about the thread of a nuclear war. 1994 the New York Times magazine published O’Brien’s essay about him revisiting My Lai in the early 1990’s. In 1994 O’Brien recalled his memories about Vietnam in his book In the Lake of the Woods (1994). This novel is based on the My Lai massacre. Although this incident happened a year before O’Brien fought in Vietnam, the aftermath of “My Lai” affected O’Brien and his fellow soldiers so intensely, that he incorporated some of these memories in the character John Wade. Tomcat in Love (1998) is not your typical Tim O’Brien book! It is a funny novel about the misadventures of a linguistic professor who is obsessed with the proper use of the English

In “Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy” Tim O'Brien uses indirect characterization to show that Private First Class Paul Berlin is afraid, terrified, and fearful. For example, Paul Berlin “would never let on how frightened he had been…making his father feel proud” (O’Brien 3). This shows that Paul Berlin is afraid of what his father will think about him when he returns home from the war. This also reveals he wants to prove his father that he is brave in the war. Furthermore, Paul Berlin pretends “how he would forget how frightened he had been on his first day at war” (O’Brien 1). This shows that Paul is scared of all the craziness happening in the war. This also reveals how Paul Berlin keeps calm during his time in the war. Finally, when Paul reaches a minefield “he [walks] carefully. He remembered everything he had been taught” (O’Brien 4). This shows that Paul is afraid of being blown up by the mine. This also reveals how Paul would use his training to be less afraid. In conclusion this is how Tim O’Brien uses indirect characterization to show that

This passage is very significant to the reality of the soldiers in the Vietnam War and brings to life the setting of the entire novel. The soldiers were primarily teenagers and young men in their early twenties who had not yet had the chance to experience life. They soon had found themselves in the midst of an intense war with nothing but uncertainty and fear. They hated it and they loved the fear and adrenaline that ran through their skin and bones. It

Prior to learning he was drafted into a war he hated, we are told that he had recently graduated from college (38). O’Brien says, “I was twenty-one years old. Young, yes, and politically naive, but even so the American war in Vietnam seemed to me wrong” (38). The previous quote shows his confusion towards the war, he then goes on questioning the war by saying, “Was it a civil war? A war of national liberation or simple aggression?” (38) which furthermore provides an example of his uncertainty towards the war. While facing confusion, O’Brien also believed he was “too smart, too passionate” (39) for the war, he claims his drafting was “a mistake, maybe— a foul-up in the paperwork” (39). Both of the quotes show man vs. society conflict. Since O'Brien had recently graduated and received a full scholarship at Harvard, he felt like he was on top of the world, like any other person would if a war was not going on then, society was focused on something he didn't believe so he did not want to accept the harsh reality that he had just been drafted. The narrator also faces man vs self conflict, O’Brien wants to get out of the draft but, he says, “There was no happy way out...my health was solid; I didn't qualify for CO status — no religious grounds, no history as a pacifist” (41). O’Brien knows that it would be illegal to not follow the law of the draft but he also knows that he does NOT want to

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

Initially, when Tim O’Brien was drafted to fight a war, he needed to make a decision between personal desire and societal expectation: his point of views was more tend to be self-preservation. He believed that according to his qualities, “[he] was too good for this war.”(2,32-33) he refused to go to the war because he had “a full-ride scholarship for grad studies at harvard”(2,35-36) that would make his future much more better than going to a war that he felt unjustified. The notice that about he was drafted to fight the Vietnam War became a mess in the life he planned out for himself. “[Tim O’Brien] did not want to die”(3,26-27) and lose his bright future that would bring him happiness.

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.

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.

Tim O’Brien was born in Austin, Minnesota on October 1, 1946 (Glerean). He spent his childhood growing up in Worthington, Minnesota. Worthington is a small town in the southern part of Minnesota. Tim’s father was an insurance salesman and participated in World War II as a sailor (Glerean). Tim’s mother was an elementary school teacher. Tim had an all-American childhood. He loved learning magic tricks, playing baseball, and reading books. He attended Macalester College and graduated in 1968 with a degree in political science (Tim O’Brien). Around the same time he received his diploma, Tim also received an unexpected and unwanted piece of paper: a draft notice (Glerean). O’Brien was against war, but despite this fact he went overseas to fight for America. He felt pressure from both his family and his country to fight in the war. O’Brien went to Vietnam despite his negative attitude toward the conflict. O’Brien fought in the Vietnam War from, 1969 to 1970. “He served in the 3rd Platoon; Company A, 5th Battalion, 46th Infantry

O’Brien uses explicit details and imagery to illustrate what the experience was like for the terrified men. Although they are sad for the loss of their friend Lavender, and try as hard as they can to be courageous, their major feeling is of relief, mainly because they are still living. Courage is shown in the “The Things They Carried” with this quote. “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment.” (p. --) This quotation is O’Brien expressing his reasons for having the courage in going to Vietnam, instead of being a coward. At the same time he is giving the reader a generalization that foreshadows the later several references towards courage and cowardice.

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

Homecoming by Bruce Dawe recounts the tragedies of the Vietnam war. The poem is cantered around the idea of dead soldiers how they were being treated and how they would never see their homes again. Bruce uses literary techniques and imagery to convey the message of war. In the first few lines there is a lot of repetition.

Tim O’Brien was a guy raised as an anti-war activist once he finished collage come to find out he was drafted into the army to go fight in the war. When deployed he was injured and received a purple heart while being sent back home and discharged. Upon his return he decided he would tell his story and recount what happened there and to him. After this he proceeded to tell his story through fiction and non-fiction works. When he wrote his works they were surprisingly well done and he even received the National Book Award.