How Is Tim O Brien's Influence On The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien

“War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead,” (The Things They Carried). This quote from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien can be used to greater understand O’Brien’s work and where his inspiration came from. Known for being one of the most credited Vietnam War writers, Tim O’Brien writes honestly and includes an emotional truth to all of his short stories. His work has been very influential and has influenced many authors’ style of writing. Tim O’Brien is considered one of the greatest short

story writers on the Vietnam War because of his first hand experiences in the war and ability to provide an emotion truth his audience can connect with.
William Timothy O’Brien was born in Austin, Minnesota on October 1, 1946. His father was an insurance salesman and his mother was a teacher. When Tim was nine, his family moved to Worthington, the “turkey capital of the world,” (Joanne McCarthy). He studied political science at Macalester College in St. Paul and had planned a career in the State Department. He was offered a full scholarship to Harvard but was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Tim strongly considered escaping to Canada in effort to avoid fighting in a war he did not believe it, but he could not stand to face the disapproval from his friends and family. When describing his time in the war he stated, “'I was walking around in a dream and repressing it all, thinking something would save my ass. Even getting on the plane for boot camp, I couldn't believe any of it was happening to me, someone who hated Boy Scouts and bugs and rifles,” (Roger Smith). After a brief period of training, he was sent off to the war as an infantry foot soldier. He spent one year in Vietnam, earning a Purple Heart during this time. His memories and experiences from the war are large influences on his stories If I Die in A Combat Zone and The Things They Carried (Blanche Gelfant).
Throughout O’Brien’s career, he has written many different forms of literature, including magazine and newspaper articles while he was a soldier in Vietnam. He published several articles on American politics as a reporter while he was working as an intern for the Washington Post as well. In addition, he has published short stories and essays in popular magazines.
Three years after O’Brien returned home from the Vietnam War he wrote his first short story, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home. This memoir describes the events that took place during the war and his mixed emotions while fighting in a war he wanted no part of. The second novel O’Brien wrote was Northern Lights (1975). This story was about two brothers in the woods of Minnesota on a ski trip when one of the characters, a Vietnam Veteran, becomes ill. His brother must then use ingenuity and craft to save his brother’s life. O’Brien brings the setting to life by providing vivid detail of the wilderness where he grew up. His third novel, which is said to be his best, is Going After Cacciato (1978). This story is about a man who creates stories of soldiers who are tracking a deserter from Vietnam to Paris. O’Brien does a great job at blurring together fact and fiction to create an attention grasping tale. This work won several awards including the National Book Award and the O. Henry Award. Another one of Tim’s best-known works was The Things They Carried (1990). This collection of Vietnam stories are claimed to be strictly fictional with an emotional truth. Critics say, “O’Brien invented a new literary form that alternates objectivity with impressionism.” These stories are well known for having immense amounts of detail, allowing the reader to feel the emotion and action of jungle warfare (Donna Glee Williams). In 1994, O’Brien wrote again of Vietnam with his novel, In the Lake of the Woods. This story is based on the My Lai massacre and the main character trying to erase his presence at My Lai. This story received mixed reviews and was claimed to be controversial with philosophical twists and turns throughout the story (Catherine Calloway).
Tim O’Brien has been mentioned and praised for his works concerning the Vietnam War by war veterans and literary critics.

In 1976, O’Brien was given the O. Henry Memorial Award for two chapters in Going After Cacciato and later the National Book Award in 1979. He won the Vietnam Veterans of America Award in 1987 and later in the same year, National Magazine Award in Fiction for The Things They Carried. This short story was also included in “The Best American Short Stories of the Century,” which is edited by John Updike. Tim has also received notable credit from his work, In the Lake of the Woods. This story has been named best book of the year by Time Magazine and earned O’Brien the James Fenimore Cooper Prize of the Society of American Historians (Dianne Andrews

Henningfeld).
Unlike many authors, O’Brien does not gain a lot of inspiration from other authors, but rather his own personal experiences. He tries to combine imagination and fiction to convey these stories his audience, and through the passion and emotion finds a connection to the readers. Having fought in Vietnam, Tim is able to realistically portray the actions, speech, and behaviors of the soldiers in the story. His experiences have also helped in describing the settings of his works. O’Brien’s pieces have been known for incredible detail and allowing the reader to picture themselves in the story (Calloway). While some may appreciate the personal connection and truth to the stories, several critics have complained of the distinction between personal facts and fiction being blurred in his stories. O’Brien has been known to mix fact and fiction in his stories, as well as memory and fantasy to add a more entertaining and exciting element to the story. Among the many themes Tim has written about, some of his most popular works have included truth, father-son relationships, courage, the physiological effects from war, and love (Smith).
While most of Tim’s inspiration has come from personal experiences, he has told interviewers that in his youth he was obsessed with Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway’s influence on O’Brien’s work is apparent through the style of writing in concise and crisp sentences. The two writers also shared the use of extensive dialogue and use of description to reflect the true emotion of his characters to create a detailed setting. Unlike his childhood icon, O’Brien uses fragmentary sentences and questions to imitate the mindset of a character, especially in a stressful situation (Williams).
After publishing In the Lake of the Woods, O’Brien stopped writing in 1994 claiming he was “burnt out,” (McCarthy)/ O’Brien, accompanied by his girlfriend and a photographer from New York Times, returned to Vietnam, the inspiration of a majority of his works.

During his visit, he searched for the base where he was station, spoke with Vietnamese war veterans, and interviewed survivors of the My Lai massacre. In 1994, Tim had published an article titled “The Vietnam in Me” which described his return to Vietnsmiam after the war, including how the experience brought him close to suicide but eventually helped him come to peace with some of the memories of the war (Gelfant). He resumed writing in 1998, publishing Tomcat in Love, which had tastes of the Vietnam War but far less than his previous works. In 1999, O’Brien began teaching every other year in a Creative Writing Program at Texas State University, San Marcos and currently lives in Austin, Texas

(Henningfeld).
O’Brien has lived a very interesting life and being able to share his works with a personal connection has brought him overwhelming success. Along the way Tim has continued to share his experiences with others, revisiting Vietnam and talking with others about some of the most tragic and inspirational times of his life. Tim O’Brien is considered one of the greatest short story writers on the Vietnam War because of his first hand experiences in the war and ability to provide an emotion truth his audience can connect with.