Summary Of The Ambush By Tim O Brien

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The Ambush by Tim O’Brien gives us a glimpse into the Vietnam War. We get a feel of the senseless killing that exists in all wars and the impact that war has on all those who have experienced it. From the character, Kathleen, to the Author and down through the young man walking on the trail, the reality of war is with us. “And it will always be that way.” When the author’s nine-year-old daughter Kathleen asked him “have you ever killed anyone?" The author gives a glimpse of the long-reaching impact of war. A nine-year-old girl can theorize “you keep writing these war stories, so I guess you must’ve killed someone." It illustrates that the impact of war reaches far beyond the battlefield and the combatants, but impacts us all. How did we get …show more content…

“Shortly after midnight, we moved into the ambush site outside My Khe. The whole platoon was there, spread out in the dense brush along the trail." The details given makes it seems as though we too are on an ambush mission with the author and his platoon mates. The author goes on to describe, “for five hours nothing at all happened. We were working in two-man teams, one man on guard while the other slept, switching off every two hours." By giving the reader such great detail regarding the setting, the author brings me inside the mind of his platoon mates and himself. I can understand the fear and anxiety they would have felt in the middle of a jungle in a foreign country in the middle of the night on a mission that possibly would mean encountering the enemy …show more content…

The author brings us face to face with the main characters, their feelings, the current circumstance and the reality of war. Through his vivid description of the young man on the trail, I wouldn’t have seen him as a threat either. As I read the passage, the same thought came to me, what would be the harm if I let him walk away? He was a young man walking down the path with ease and not in a hurry; not thinking this would be the day he would die. As the author described the sequence of throwing the grenade, not thinking about killing another human being, the automatic reflexes of throwing the grenade before actually thinking about it and finally realizing the plight of the young man as the shell landed at his feet and went off made me feel profound

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