ipl-logo

Die In A Combat Zone, Box Me Up And Ship Me Home By Tim O Brien

1351 Words6 Pages

Out of the approximately 58,100 American casualties of the Vietnam War, Tim O’Brien managed to be one of the lucky foot soldiers that avoided brutal Viet Cong assault, countless hidden land mines, and deadly booby-traps. After the war, O’Brien conjured up a very emotional and eye-opening novel about his experiences in Vietnam and titled it, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me up and Ship Me Home. Author Tim O’Brien argued that the Vietnam War was unjustified through his depictions of exquisite brutality, mistreatment of Vietnam civilians, and soldier’s experiences of guerrilla warfare.
The ways in which O’Brien demonstrates to the audience the exquisite brutality of the Viet Cong and American soldiers during the Vietnam War, are scattered throughout the entirety of the book and really help to strengthen his claim for the lack of justification for the War. The first instance in which the audience starts to notice how brutal the Vietnam War truly was, is when a night patrol led by Mad Mark enter a village called Tri Binh 4 (pg. 83). At the village, the patrol squad shoots and kill Viet Cong soldiers, one of which happen to be missing an ear because Mad Mark removed and kept it (pg. 83). That same night, gunships are called in on the village for an hour, and the following morning the town is burnt to the ground (pg. 84). …show more content…

O’Brien captures real-life events that he experiences first-hand in Vietnam. Including the incomprehensive presence of brutality, a disturbing lack of value for the lives of innocent Vietnamese civilians, and the soldier’s experiences with guerrilla warfare. These factors together encompass the main points in Tim O’Brien’s argument and give valid evidence that helps the reader grasp that America had little to no morally justifiable reason to become involved in the Vietnam

Show More
Related

Summary Of Chapter Nine Of Lies My Teacher Told Me

518 Words | 3 Pages

Countless Americans lack education of the Vietnam War and what treatment the Vietnamese population received during the war. Many times the behavior conducted towards the Vietnamese portrayed American soldiers mistreating the noncombatants. James W. Loewen’s chapter nine of Lies My Teacher Told Me leads readers through the occurrences in the Vietnam War by elaborating the war crimes enacted by American soldiers, examining the intervention of America in the war, and describing pictures that were taken during the war. One subject Loewen uncovers is the analysis of the war crimes throughout the Vietnam War.

Read More

Summary Of The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1905 Words | 8 Pages

These stories show the harsh realities of the Vietnam War communicated by Tim O’Brien’s memory. O’Brien does not shy away from the importance of friendship during the war. Soldiers are

Read More

Summary Of The Tears Of War By Tim O Brien

785 Words | 4 Pages

The Tears of War The author Tim O’Brien, creates a novel that talks about many true and unreal war stories to display how much the Vietnam War has physically and emotionally affected each soldier. This book was written by the point of view of a veteran who has experienced the grief and pain these men were put through because they forced to fight in a war that they may or may not have believed in. O’Brien’s purpose for writing this novel is to let people who were not in the war try to understand and experience the feelings and thoughts of the men as they read each story in this novel.

Read More

The Thing By Tim O Brien Rhetorical Devices

747 Words | 3 Pages

War and The Power of Words "My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see." -Joseph Conrad The Vietnam War began after Vietnam split into two parts in 1954: Communist North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem. Soviet Russia allied with North Vietnam, and the United States reacted by allying with South Vietnam.

Read More

Analysis Of Tim O Brien's In The Lake Of The Woods

1196 Words | 5 Pages

Toward the end of 1900s, American literature saw a wave of fresh context about the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien, one of the most popular authors of this new content, wrote a few of the popular Vietnam-themed novels. In the Lake of the Woods is among these novels about the Vietnam War, fictitiously depicting events that have changed people’s perspective on the history. Tim O’Brien expresses his rebuke in numerous ways, including how the war has changed modern warfare in that time. He also displays his views in an anti-war tone, speaking out against the war itself and the individual damage it has caused.

Read More

The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien Literary Analysis

1348 Words | 6 Pages

Among the large group of American men to be drafted one of them was Tim O’Brien the author of the short story “The Things They Carried” 3. Aside from the exponential amount of men sent off to war, the Vietnam war already had a bad stigma. There was little public support due to the feeling of fighting and unwinnable war and the amount of men who were dying. In his story, O’Brien portrays this sense

Read More

Truong's A Viet Cong Memoir

937 Words | 4 Pages

In A Viet Cong Memoir, we receive excellent first hands accounts of events that unfolded in Vietnam during the Vietnam War from the author of this autobiography: Truong Nhu Tang. Truong was Vietnamese at heart, growing up in Saigon, but he studied in Paris for a time where he met and learned from the future leader Ho Chi Minh. Truong was able to learn from Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary ideas and gain a great political perspective of the conflicts arising in Vietnam during the war. His autobiography shows the readers the perspective of the average Vietnamese citizen (especially those involved with the NLF) and the attitudes towards war with the United States. In the book, Truong exclaims that although many people may say the Americans never lost on the battlefield in Vietnam — it is irrelevant.

Read More

The Things They Carried Morally Ambiguous Characters

500 Words | 2 Pages

This vietcong soldier is described as poorly structured, with a small body, slender fingers, frail wrists, and a delicate face. The chapter “The Man I Killed” opens up describing his features as well as his wounds. As stated in the chapter “Ambush”, Tim O’Brien spotted the Vietcong soldier and threw a grenade towards his direction. The soldier saw the grenade, but it was too late. At first thought, the reader would see this person as the enemy and not think much of it, but then, Tim O’Brien becomes lost in his thoughts, and begins to see things from the soldier’s perspective.

Read More

Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: A Literary Analysis

1292 Words | 6 Pages

Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

Read More

Spin By Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis

791 Words | 4 Pages

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.

Read More

Analysis Of Ambush By Tim O Brien

655 Words | 3 Pages

“Approximately 58,000 Americans and more than 3 million Vietnamese “ This was a huge casualty for america, but this number was nothing compared to what the Vietnamese lost. No one will ever be able to comprehend how serious war was and is. Tim O’Brien did serve in the Vietnam War but his story Ambush is not a personal story from him. In the story a father tells a story to his daughter about one of his experiences in the war. In Ambush by Tim O’Brien, three messages are shared.

Read More

Imagery In The Things They Carried

543 Words | 3 Pages

The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, illustrates the experiences of a man and his comrades throughout the war in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien actually served in the war, so he had a phenomenal background when it came to telling the true story about the war. In his novel, Tim O’Brien uses imagery to portray every necessary detail about the war and provide the reader with a true depiction of the war in Vietnam. O’Brien starts out the book by describing everything he and his comrades carry around with them during the war. Immediately once the book starts, so does his use of imagery.

Read More

Things They Carried Patriotism Analysis

674 Words | 3 Pages

Too smart, too compassionate, too everything” (O’Brien, 44-45). Clearly, the protagonist of this story had a whole different life ahead. His dreams were high, but it was crushed to the ground. A war should always contain reasonable cause in the justice. But the Vietnam War was a national liberation and a simple aggression.

Read More

Summary Of How To Tell A True War Story By Tim O Brien

665 Words | 3 Pages

When Tim O’brien came back home, he used his education to author books about the Vietnam Conflict and how it affected himself and those around him through detailed descriptions of personal accounts. In “How to Tell a True War Story,” Tim O’Brien uses the torture of a baby buffalo to show how pain and depression manifest within the soldiers who have to cope with tragedy. After Curt Lemon stepped on a bouncing betty and got killed, Rat Kiley was shaken over the loss of his best friend. Later that day Kiley began to torment a baby buffalo because he did not know how to cope with the

Read More

Summary Of If I Die In A Combat Zone By Tim O Brien

884 Words | 4 Pages

In If I Die in a Combat Zone, author Tim O'Brien argued that the Vietnam War was wrong and unjust through his depictions of a soldier’s daily life on war, how the author is affected by moral ambiguity, and soldier's experiences of the feel of the war with struggles along with emotional and physical changes. In the book, O’Brien invokes his daily life as a college student who was drafted into becoming a soldier at the Vietnam War (pg. 16). He had no other option than to take part in the war. His life is changed due to the war he is obligated to take a part of.

Read More

More about Die In A Combat Zone, Box Me Up And Ship Me Home By Tim O Brien

Related Topics

Open Document