Tim O'Brien Theis

2147 Words9 Pages
Tim O’Brien and The Effects of The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a horrific war that changed many people forever. Young men between eighteen and twenty-three years old were shipped off to a foreign land to fight in a war that they didn’t fully understand. Over the years, there have been many literary works about the Vietnam War, but none compare to the accuracy and brutal reality of Tim O’Brien’s works. Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” explores the hardships of the Vietnam War during combat, and his short stories “Speaking of Courage” and “Field Trip” show the after effects of the Vietnam War and how it changed people forever. Tim O’Brien is considered one of the only authors who portrays the Vietnam War exactly how it was. Through the use of tone and characterization, Tim O’Brien demonstrates a soldier’s constant fear of impending death, and the emotional toll of war. Tim O’Brien uses tone throughout is stories to show what the Vietnam War was like, and how it affected people. The tone in O’Brien’s short story, “Field Trip”, emphasizes the meaning of the trip and why the field is important. The whole purpose of the narrator’s trip to Vietnam is to get closure about Kiowa’s death. The narrator said, “I’d gone under with Kiowa, and now after two decades I’d finally worked my way out” (Field Trip 736). By visiting the site where Kiowa died, some of the burden of his death is taken off the narrator’s conscience. The tone of the passage is shown when the narrator’s daughter, Kathleen, does not understand what is going through her father’s mind as he is gazing out into the field (Bookstove 1). The last time the narrator saw this field he witnessed the death of his friend, and ever since then the field has been on his mind. The tone is how the field is completely different then the last time he saw it. It shows how things change and how you have
Open Document