Analysis Of If I Die In A Combat Zone By Tim O Brien

Improved Essays
If If I Die in a Combat Zone, author Tim O 'Brien argued that the Vietnam War was for some people but not for others. He showed this through his depictions of how lonely he was and how different he was from the soldiers, how some soldiers were very couragous and not scared of death but he was, and how the other soldiers didn’t care for the other native people there but he did.
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

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the chapter, On the Rainy River, of Tim O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien, the main character, is considered a coward. This is because he first ran away from the war, and his responsibility to his country, and he then chickened out and did not follow through with his plan. This is very much related to both the Declaration of Independence and Jonathan Edwards Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. In this chapter, O’Brien is conflicted between not knowing what he will be fighting for when he goes to war, and feeling like he needs to meet the expectations of others and being loyal to his country.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If I Die in a Combat Zone, author Tim O’Brien, argued that the Vietnam War was unjust yet there was still a sense of humanity left, through his depictions of himself, O’Brien and his fellow soldiers in their daily life in combat, how he was brought into the war, and through his self reflection about his actions as a combat soldier before he returned home. If I Die in Combat Zone, talks about O’Brien and the other soldiers time in combat. Things in their daily lives made O 'Brien believe that the war was unjust because there were many mistakes made by the U.S. Army throughout the war. One of those mistakes was when one of the U.S soldiers accidently shoots a vietnamese woman.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    He lost a good friend of his during the war and during the beginning of the book he lost his cool during the middle of the war. He forgot to fire and believed it was all a mistake to join the military. Maybe it was a mistake to join the war he was so young he may not have…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Attention Grabber: In our society, we all long for a feeling of acceptance by our peers and we detest the feeling of being left on the outside. Introduce literature used: On a Rainy River by Tim O’Brien Thesis: Acceptance of plays a role in the responsibilities that we put upon ourselves, this is demonstrated through the character of Tim O'Brien, metaphor and tone of the story. Body Body Paragraph 1…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In The Things They Carried, war is seen by Americans as a way for men to show their country’s pride and to prove their worthiness. In this time period war was unavoidable for men between the ages of 18 to 25, the draft forces men to partake in war even if they didn’t want to. Some men fled to Canada, emitted themselves into mental hospitals, and did anything possible to prevent their having to go. Tim O’Brien is saying throughout this novel is that the whole culture of war is patriotism, strength, and fear. It is shown through the soldiers, the atmosphere, and the surroundings in Vietnam that the United States feels superior over North and South Vietnam and the American men fighting are greater soldiers.…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Time gives one the realization of ones identity; gives one the opportunity to decide who one wants to be or who one has become. Syllogism provides the reason one may be the way they are, connecting two things to create an answer. O’Brien’s use of syllogism explains how he has changed, from his life before the war and after. He often talks about how time has had an affect on him. If not for the experiences and things he had done, he would be a completely different person.…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    While there, he deliberates whether to join the war or abide his conscience and flee. Despite his reluctance, O’Brien cannot forsake his country, claiming, “I was a coward, I went to the war” (The Things They Carried, 58). O’Brien is deeply troubled by the predicament he finds himself in: having to fight a war he morally opposes or leaving the country and people that he loves. This feeling epitomizes the plight of many soldiers and O’Brien carries this feeling with him to Vietnam. In Vietnam, despair and hopelessness run rampant among the troops.…

    • 1990 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This essay will go into detail about the actions and consequences Tim O’Brien, Jimmy Cross, and Norman Bowker decide and how they relate to O’Brien’s theories on responsibility, cowardice, and courage. The first step in the engagement of war is being drafted. In O’Brien’s novel, he includes the story of how he was drafted on a humid afternoon on June 17, 1968. At the age of 21 O’Brien was not prepared to fight a war in which he did not agree with, so he drove north. When he reached the Tip Top Lodge, he met Elroy Berdahl, a quiet 81-year-old bald…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    On The Rainy River

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages

    He says, “This is one story I’ve never told before… To go into it, I’ve always thought, would only cause embarrassment for all of us, a sudden need to be elsewhere, which is the natural response to a confession” (O’Brien 172). It takes a brave person to not only share his deepest secret with someone, but to write it down on paper and share it with the world. There are not many people who can look embarrassment in the eye, and not coward down. Throughout the story, Tim O’Brien is forced to make some extremely difficult decisions, and it is his strong beliefs that the Vietnam War was being fought for uncertain reasons, which help him make those decisions. It seems each decision he makes comes with a repercussion.…

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Since we, as readers, were able to clearly perceive the emotional truth about war that Tim O’Brien wanted to convey. “By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others.…

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Tim O’Brien always seemed to base his stories off his own experiences in one way or another. More specifically for this essay, we will be talking about “How to Tell a True War Story” in his book “The Things They Carried”. What I am getting at here is that his work never seems to be what we originally think it is. In his story “How to Tell a True War Story”, the point of the story is not about war, it is not a war story. It is a love story; it is a ghost story.…

    • 1549 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Tim O’Brien insinuates through these stories, that shame and guilt are very powerful motivators for wrong, dangerous, and painful decisions that will affect one for the rest of their life. Fear and Shame go hand and hand when it comes to affecting a person mentally. The men of the Vietnam war were already traumatized, at as young as eighteen, that they couldn’t handle any extra fear, embarrassment, or shame. This is the cause of many suicides or self-harming committed by soldiers who were previously in the war. This teaches the reader to be careful to what one exposes themselves to and to also be cautious to how one treats others because anyone could be experiencing large amount of emotional pain of shame, guilt, and embarrassment.…

    • 1404 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    19 Aug. 2016. In this short interview with Tim O’Brien, he brings about the physical weight that the soldiers carry. More important, the book is about the psychological burden that the soldiers carry with them after the war – guilt, sadness, joy and the burden of memories. Tim shared his memories of being draft to war, the…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien shares numerous war stories to illustrate the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War. Throughout the book, the narrator, Tim O’Brien, shares stories about the soldiers in his platoon during the war. He shares what each soldier carried and its significance. He also discusses the effects of the war on the soldiers’ life, including his own, by using themes. O’Brien utilizes several themes in his stories, such as love and guilt.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This is a major similarity between the author and the narrator’s life that is impossible to miss. At the end of the story the narrator made the important decision to “go to the war… because he was embarrassed not to,” (O’Brien 186). Tim made the same decision in real life and received a purple heart for being hit with shrapnel while fighting in Vietnam. However, we do not know if he made the decision to fight for the same reason. Tim may have realized the right reason to go to war instead of returning and fighting because “he couldn’t risk the embarrassment” (O’Brien 186) of leaving his family like the narrator did in the story.…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays