The effects of war not only affect the soldier, but also cause an effect on families and loved ones. It is hard for the family to accept what had done war to Henry, but it is even tougher for Henry, who is blind by the terrible things he saw and lived at Vietnam, and does not see another way out than committing
The author, O’Brien, seemed to shape the line between truth and story in a different direction. He explains it is difficult to differentiate what actually happened from what seemed to have happened. The author emphasizes that with writing war stories, there comes a complexity to it that most do not understand. The author, O’Brien, is very resentful of the Vietnam War. His past consisted of getting drafted into the war against his
The three things that affected North Vietnamese, hating Americans, living in harsh conditions and receiving severe injuries were all things they had to deal with during and after the war. They hated the Americans for causing deaths and poisoning land that will now cause problems for North Vietnamese today. The harsh conditions led to injuries which also made them hate Americans. As much as they hated them at that time, they now forgive and try to move forward from what happened. The Vietnam War definitely affected them in a bad way but at least they look into the future and not think of the past.
These feeling are expressed in the story about Rat Kiley's letter, with which the chapter is started - with his feelings of grief about loss and final «cooze», because he was not written back and he could not cope with his loss. His pain is shown in the shoking story of shooting baby buffalo. However, all these stories might have never happened, the soldiers were fighting the war and facing blood, troops and losses, struggling because of their youth and immaturity, fear that cannot be ignored about war. This terrible experience of war is the only truth that author wants to make the readers understand in his
Veterans needed to write in order to give themselves closure of some sort. The veterans expressed how they felt and what happened in the war through the literature. They needed that outlet but the American public was not quite ready for it. Tim O’Brien states, “She’ll explain that as a rule she hates war stories, she can’t understand why people want to wallow in all the blood and gore.” Most literature written was uncensored, the Vietnam veterans didn’t hold back with what actually went on. But the American public wasn’t ready for that type of exposure.
“The War We Couldn’t Win” In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien wanted to create a realistic picture of what the war in Vietnam was like. He did so by letting you get to know a little about each soldier and what they each carried with them along with the war. The ‘things’ the characters carried are both literal and figurative. While they all carry physical burdens, they also carry emotional burdens. Both of these ate away at the men; mind, body and soul.
Fiction Essay “The Things They Carried” a short story by Tim O’Brien is about soldiers in the Vietnam War. O’Brien being a war veteran himself knows what the war was like, and he reflects this in this story. This story is about the many things that the soldiers carried. This story was one that made me want to keep turning the page and it is a story that gave an amazing inner view of what life on the frontlines is really like. The soldiers in the Vietnam War and for any War for that matter are constantly scared for their lives and just living day to day is a struggle they are forced to face fighting, death, and sickness on a daily basis.
This book was all about Vietnam and to most people Vietnam is really known as the war that we shouldn’t of been in, in the first place in short terms The war shameful war. This war was not like any other wars when the Vietnam soldiers came home they weren’t not treated with respect they were shamed for even going and fighting for it. "My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame." Chapter 4, pg.
The true war story has no moral; ask one’s self, “Is war truly moral? How is killing others justifiable by society or god and how is it moral?” Citizens, as well as most frontline soldiers, try to find this moral to soften the cold hard truth of it all; While they try to soften the blow of reality, the stories lose their truth, they are bent, they are “skewed” as O’Brien would say. It is simply another way to lose a true war story. The last way of telling a true war story is through belief. O’Brien stated: “It comes down to gut instinct.
How the Vietnam Affected Us John Irving speaks of the Vietnam War in his Novel A Prayer for Owen Meany. Some characters go through a lot of tough, troublesome, and even fun times; he revels their personalities and how they change and manipulate throughout the war. They get though it fine, except for one, and live their lives through. John Irving demonstrates the Vietnam War as a difficult and stressful time to the characters. There’s a lot of protesting of the war and a lot of people trying to dodge the war.