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The Message In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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The Things They Carried In the historical fiction The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien presents himself, the narrator, being faced with a war draft to a war he didn't agree with, in order to convey a message about going to war instead of fleeing the draft ultimately illustrating that message of being a coward for going against what he believed in. Tim O’Brien conveys a message of himself being a coward for going against what he believed in. In the text Tim had recently graduated from college when he got drafted to the war, O’Brien stated “In June of 1968, a month after graduating from Macalester College, I was drafted to fight a war I hated.” O’Brien makes it extremely clear that his views did not align with the war. This presents a problem for him, because there was no way for Tim to get out of the draft. The Vietnam War was happening when Tim was still in college O’Brien Comments, “Young, yes, and politically naive, but even so the American War in Vietnam seemed so wrong.” Tim spoke a substantial amount on him being young, but still having strong opinions about the violence …show more content…

After Tim had been drafted a multitude of thoughts were going through his head, and understandably so. Tim realized he could never do the atrocities that fighting in a war comes along with. With this O’Brien adds, “At some point in mid-July, I began thinking seriously about Canada.” Tim was so scared for himself that he would leave his family and his country behind to not fight in this war that he despised. At one point Tim O’Brien is admitting to himself that he would go to the war in which O’Brien states, “And right then I submitted, I would go to the war - I would kill and maybe die - because I was embarrassed not to.” It is important that we understand his feelings of embarrassment, and also understand why he couldn’t

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