In the book If I Die in a Combat Zone Tim O’Brien shows he was lonely when he left for war. He got drafted into the Vietnam war. First he went to Fort Lewis and did his training there he had only one friend Erik. At basic training all the other trainees adjusted well and is looked easy when they did it.(Pg. 33) WHen all the other trainees were having a good time joking and laughing he just sat alone and didn’t say a word. Everything he learned to do he learned alone. He was tired of independence.(pg. 34) He thought about running away to Canada just so he didn’t have to carry a rifle. Tim and his friend Erik even made a coalition against the army.(Pg. 35) They say it was a war of resistance to save their souls.(Pg. 35) The two both read poems and enjoyed them, but they wouldn’t talk about them around other people because the other soldiers were all about war. Tim even tries to run away at one point. He didn’t want to go to war so bad that he lied to his family to get his passport and things so he could go somewhere else not Chu Lai.(Ph.54) He just wasn’t excepting to the war he didn 't want to fight or did he see a point. …show more content…
The main reason Tim O’Brien wrote this book was to show how war is not for everyone. Not everyone is accustomed to war. He proves this by his stories of how lonely he was and how the other soldiers were polar opposite from him, how courageous the other soldiers were and how he wasn’t, and how he was compassionate for the old men and native people but the other soldiers weren 't as