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How Does Tim O Brien Present The Overall Attitudes In The Things They Carried

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War, Belief and Emotion People comprehend war very differently; they either hate it, understand it, or love it; there are many literary works with stories depicting these points of view. In 1990, author Tim O’Brien described his view of war with his “work of fiction” The Things They Carried, a book supposedly based on his experiences in the Vietnam War. His descriptive and emotional work richly depicts the feelings and activities of several drafted soldiers in the Vietnam War. Twenty-two years later and based on an entirely different war, came American Sniper, the memoir of a sniper in the Iraq War, by Chris Kyle. Kyle’s proud and rhapsodizing work depicts his strong supportive feelings for the war and what he did there. While The Things …show more content…

Tim O’Brien uses seemingly true events to describe his overall emotions about the Vietnam war and what he and others did there. “I want you to know what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth” (O’Brien, pg. 171). This quotation is the foundation of the entire book The Things They Carried, O’Brien uses this base to tell the story of many things that he witnessed. O’Brien’s verisimilitude is used to give real world emotions to a literary work. O’Brien understands that a lot is lost in translation, when sitting at home enjoying a book a reader does not fully understand the magnitude of what is happening, but if the author exaggerates then the mood of the reader may come closer to the tone of the author; the verisimilitude is more real to the audience and the author than the truth. The small changes also help the author to fill in the blanks of their memory and bring the seemingly dead past back to life. It is easier to get closure this way as O’Brien states here, “...I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now...I’m left with faceless responsibility and...grief.” (O’Brien pg. 172). O’Brien needs to put a face with the experience, the exaggerations and stories in which he can make one, help him to get over the overall experience. American Sniper on

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There is the illusion of aliveness” (O’Brien 218). Storytelling and its process involves fabrication in order to make a story flow and intrigue those who hear it. While, inevitably, imagination and the human condition manage to disturb recalling the war’s reality, O’Brien finds solace in rearranging his perceptions, hoping to discover

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Firstly, he has found that storytelling has the power to alter painful memories. O’Brien finds himself witnessing a lot of death in his lifetime and a

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The Veracity of War One who is inexperienced and uneducated with war can have many thoughts and opinions about the subject, but only those who have experienced war can understand its true meaning, or lack thereof. In 1990, Tim O’Brien published an appalling, loathsome collection of short stories called The Things They Carried. O’Brien’s experiences in the Vietnam war is what influenced him to write the truth about war, or his version of the truth. O’Brien depicted this by describing his own warped and questionable story; “The Man I Killed.” Chris Kyle, another American author, later wrote in 2012 an enthralling, morbid memoir called American Sniper.

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Instead, he denounces the traditional, dominant war story narrative. Brutal details, according to O’Brien, are necessary, “You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. If you don’t care for obscenity, you don’t care for the truth; if you don’t care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come back talking dirty” (66). O’Brien essentially challenges and warns the reader by suggesting they must be prepared for reality.

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Synthesis Essay Tim O’Brien wrote the book The Things They Carried 20 years after he returned from war, making him the protagonist of the novel. O’Brien felt that writing down his stories from the war brought him closer to it, and the people he came to know from the war. Bringing himself closer to the past allowed O’Brien to gain closure for the tragedies he witnessed. His novel allows readers to gain a new perspective on war, since many opposed the Vietnam War when it happened. O’Brien gives readers a closer look inside the war to show the impact that it has on veterans.

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