William Timothy O’brien

Omar Farag

Prof. Goldman

12/10/05

English 2

Research Paper: William Timothy O’Brien

Word Count: 1474

William Timothy O’Brien, also known as Tim O’Brien, is an author that is most known for his psychological novels and short stories on the theme of the Viet Nam war. Some of his most famous work include the novels Going after Cacciato, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tomcat in Love, Northern Lights and his critically acclaimed The Things They Carried. The Things They Carried is a “half novel, half short story” work of fiction about men and war. I will discuss the short stories “The Things They Carried”, “The Man I Killed,” “Night Life” and “Field Trip”. In his literature O’Brien uses various techniques to convey his emotions and thoughts and those of his fellow soldiers during the Vietnam war. He utilizes straightforward prose which entices the reader.

I chose Tim O’Brien as the author to discuss because I feel “The Things They Carried” was the most entertaining story to read in The Norton Anthology of Short Stories. The word entertaining is an unusual word to use when discussing stories on the topic of war. The average short story about war might list a depressing series of events as if it were a documentary on the History Channel. In contrast, O’Brien’s stories involve in depth first hand analysis of a soldier’s psyche. The simple, clear and artistic language he uses keeps the reader wanting to know more. I felt interested, curious, sad and enlightened reading O’Brien’s descriptions of the day to day existence of a solder in Vietnam.

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These stories gave me a better understanding of my uncle, a Vietnam veteran who has been a broken shell of a man since his career as a soldier in that war.

In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien uses the literary technique of characterization. The mundane and very necessary items carried by each soldier (depending on rank) expresses the unique personality of each character. Can openers, knives, candy, tablets, water and rations were among their necessities. Individually each soldier carried the personal things they needed for their well being, i.e., drugs, comic books or a Bible. The heaviest thing they carried was the “unweighed emotional baggage of men who might die.” Grief, terror, love and longing were among the emotions that the soldiers experienced. “Ted Lavender carried six or seven ounces of premium dope.” O’Brien characterizes Ted as an addict who uses drugs to keep his sanity. The drugs he carried is a tranquilizer that suppresses his fear while in the combat zone. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from Martha through the platoon missions. The letters express the infatuation Jimmy had for her. This characterizes him as an emotional man. He often daydreamed about Martha during platoon missions. This kind of unconsciousness later proves him to be irresponsible when Ted Lavender was fatally shot because of his negligence.

“Night life” is a language trick used by the soldiers to make things seem tolerable. Night marches were a time of horror for soldiers in the jungles of Vietnam. The story is specifically about Rat Kiley. O’Brien uses a “point-of-view” technique to convey Rat’s behavior through the observations of RTO Mitchell Sanders, instead of himself.

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“A few words about Rat Kiley, I wasn’t there when he got hurt, but Mitchell Sanders told me the essential facts. Apparently he lost his cool.” While the platoon moved through the foothills west of Quang Ngai City, the soldiers could hardly see the person who was walking in front of them in the pure black night. They felt nervous and afraid of being left alone. This fear began to set in with Rat Kiley on the sixth day when he started to talk about weird things. One thing he spoke about was the “big giant killer bugs”. “He claimed the bugs were personally after his ass. He said he could hear the bastards homing in on him…Swarms of mutant bugs whispering his name….it was driving him crazy”. Rat becomes so traumatized that he purposely shoots himself in the foot. After shooting himself he is sent to Japan for R&R (rest and recovery). O’Brien uses Rat Kiley to show an effect that Vietnam had on one soldier. Rat was a medic and it is obvious he had a horrifying job. Always having to patch up mutilated bodies and plug open wounds was not a picnic for him. It is clear that his position in the army caused him a great deal of trauma. I thought is was quite humorous that Rat felt like the bugs were chasing him. The actions