Summary Of 30th Anniversary Report On The Class Of 41, By Tim O Brien

The Vietnam War began in the year 1957 and did not conclude till the year 1975. However, the United States did not enter the war till 1965, and left by 1973 (Skinner 1). When the U.S. made the decision to go to war, not everyone in the country was pleased. The country was divided over the idea of the U.S. getting involved in a foreign-affair war. Some believed that the U.S. had a responsibility to assist South Vietnam, a U.S. ally. However, others argued that the U.S. should remain isolated and focus on their own struggles instead of getting involved in foreign affairs. Andrew Skinner also gives an overview of the Vietnam War, and how the American public reaction was against the war. Thus, most of the country was not in support of the war, and Tim O’Brien was no exception.

Harold Bloom, in his book, gives his expert opinion on O’Briens style and tone on the Vietnam War, and how O’Brien used his views on the Vietnam War in this short story. The poem, “30th Anniversary Report on the Class of ‘41”, shows how the narrator of the poem has returned from the war, his reaction and tone towards the war and his return from it, and how his tone about the war is very similar to O’Brien’s tone in his short story. These sources all relate back to the unsupportive nature and tone that most Americans had when the U.S. had decided to enter the war. Throughout American literature of the Vietnam War, most of the authors’ reiterate through their works their unsupportive nature and bitterness towards the war. The same type of tone was also present in the hearts of most of the Americans public throughout the Vietnam