The Vietnam War By Tim O Brien: An Analysis

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The Vietnam War, as portrayed by Tim O’Brien, is popular for the presentation of emotional and physical burdens of the soldiers. The author explores aspects of war such as weight, the dead, trauma, guilt, and moral issues, carrying out shocking and evocative descriptions, using personal thoughts and experiences. The physically defined burden of warfare is a recurring theme in all of O’Brien’s works. Soldiers are weighed down by their equipment, which may consist of rifles, bullets, food and sundry items. The result of a constant level of stress on the heart can lead to fatigue, injury and eventually death. The weight of the dead is one of the most apparent motifs in this novel; it signifies the task of lamenting, the horror, and memorialization. …show more content…

O’Brien narrates in “The Things They Carried,” and among other things he talks about how soldiers have to carry the bodies of their comrades. This weight can be a factor in guilt because soldiers feel that it’s their fault that their comrades have died. It can also be a source of comfort, because soldiers might be given the company of the dead. Several of the characters in O’Brien’s work struggle with guilt over the things they have done or things that have been done to them. The final tale of the lives of the dead involves a soldier who has regrets of killing a Vietnamese civilian. It is a vulnerable position to be in having to live with the guilt as a result of such things that may warrant shame or self- loathing. O’Brien’s stories deal with moral issues that come with war. Conflicts that imply no clear solution are one of the means of characterization that can be observed in the work. In the story of How to Tell a True War Story, O’Brien introduces the audience to moral issues in wars and he concludes that there is no perception of a true war story. There is one powerful truth about war, which is that nothing is easy and so much is

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