Tim O'Brien

Paper Summary:

This paper begins with a brief history of Tim O'Brien's life and background before he fought in the war in Vietnam. The writer then looks at the process that led O'Brien to become a writer from his time in Vietnam to his university years at Harvard. The paper looks at the recurring themes evident not only in "If I Die in a Combat Zone", but his other novels as well.

From the Paper:

"Fear and fears is also one of the center points of the novel. Obviously, in wars and in the Vietnam War in particular, the utmost fear is the fear of dying. However, surprisingly or not, the fear of dying seems to be occasionally surpassed by other fears. One of them is the fear of getting lost at night. As O'Brien puts it, this fear refers to the terrible sensation of "of becoming detached from the others, of spending the night alone in that frightening and haunted countryside". This description of the fear of getting lost draws an interesting angle on what collectivity is in a war. Practically, you begin to refuse your existence as an individual and begin to exist as a group, because, as the quote underlines, it is the fact of being separated from the others that is most traumatizing in getting lost."

More papers on Tim O'Brien:

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