Tim O'Brien and his literary works

Tim O'Brien

Any writer is first a man, and we have to understand his qualities as an individual before we try any analysis. Tim O'Brien has many features in his character. Apart from being an author, he is a regular attendee of the bluegrass festival. This he does solo as well as with others and is also the president of the International Bluegrass Music Association. He is renowned in the Irish community through his band, the Crossing, and he is also a top class writer of country and folk songs. This aspect of him surfaces at the top with the release of his first solo contemporary folk album and his participation in the Cold Mountain movie soundtrack. (Tim O'Brien: coming in from the cold)

Yet we are trying to look at his merits as a writer, and he is a writer with Vietnam as the root cause. This war has changed the thinking and dreams of many Americans, and also totally the writing in the country. Compare this to the writings on the two World Wars where the writings involved a sense of cultural identity, masculinity and individual heroism. The American response in those wars was viewed as heroic and victorious and the attempts in the war are viewed to be generally "good." In the case of Vietnam, the views are much more fragmented. This is clearly seen through the review of writers like Norman Mailer, Tim O'Brien and Michael Herr. The image of the war in these pictures is often real, though the total feeling may leave us with a lot of distaste. The present images of Vietnam in our minds come largely from the images that are thrown up be these writings, though the styles are different for individual authors. The different accounts of the war stories and their own personal conflicts have been transferred into literature.

The differences arise from their own individuality, but the ultimate objectives of the efforts are the same - tell the truth. There is an entirely different style in writing about Vietnam and this shows clearly the differences of views of the combat. The difference is not only in form, but also of the outlook on the war. Till the advent of these novels, writing about war was generally viewed as a nationalistic job - to remind the future generation about the earlier heroes. Due to the differences which came about through these writings, the language of writing about war also changed and it became a concentration on war to be action, for the nation and an individual experience to be written down as an autobiography. This has made the writing much richer in form and an attempt to emphasize different perspectives and ideologies, so that the different emotional experiences of war could be purged. Thus a simple explanation can be to say that this is a personal narrative and the objective of the authors is not to view the experiences of war only in historical and personal terms, but also to reflect the entire tension that was going on between the individual and the historical situation. (Vietnam: A watershed in war writing)

Tim O'Brien was not very happy that American conscience had been able to digest the events of Vietnam very well and the country had got back to a situation of being "normal." On his side, he had gone to the extent of saying that he wished that the country was a little more troubled. When the society in the country is normal, it means that the history has been removed from the public conscience, and also changed human nature where these events will no longer raise public protests. In the stories of war, there are the dreams and lives of individuals, fighting as soldiers, and are not only a set of data. This is important to note. Since the point is only to talk about the event without highlighting the results, is it not more difficult to raise public interest? The importance is for the reader to participate in the event without bothering about the end results. There has to be a highlight on the imagination of the author and that should be more important to the reader than the facts concerned with the war. (Tim O'Brien and the Art of the True War Story: 'Night March' and 'Speaking of Courage' - Critical Essay)

The reader has to get into the war emotionally and understand what had happened and the effects on the soldier. Slowly the war recedes into the past as all events in life do. Yet in spite of the distance in time, can the author continue to write vivid stories about it, and not confuse the issue by adding romanticism or cynicism? Some would prefer to forget the past, even like some characters in O'Brien's stories. The essence of war as literature lies in the story of interaction between data and the feelings within the human being. O'Brien makes an attempt in his literature to convert this apparent conflict into a total story through discourses between non-existent characters. Examples of such discussions are seen in his short stories of "Night March" and "Speaking of courage." These stories show that there was a difference between what happened and the feeling of what happened in the mind of the characters. (Tim O'Brien and the Art of the True War Story: 'Night March' and 'Speaking of Courage' - Critical Essay)

This is what makes war story literature and just not war reporting. The stories of Vietnam continue in "The Things They Carried." This is in a peculiar form and the text lends itself to being called either a fictional novel or a personal memoir. This problem is seen in all writings about Vietnam and the writings reflect either innocent errors or informed accounts. When one thinks of this writing as an informed account of the Vietnam War, it can be even felt to be a traditional writing regarding war. The difference is easily recognized as there is a lot of stress placed by the author on group camaraderie, individual heroism and all the American soldiers calling the Vietnamese as "Charlie." This is an emphasis on the American soldier fighting for justice. Yet, a large part of the story is about turmoil in the minds of the soldiers and the heavy pressure that comes on the soldier's mind. This reflection reflects the burden of memories that the author carries even in an innocent narrative through trauma and threat.

There is a chapter there "The man I killed" where the language demonstrates the author's horror, guilt and fear in his action of killing a young soldier of the opposite party. "His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star shaped hole, his eyebrows were thin and shaped like a woman's, his nose was undamaged,... his clean black hair was swept upward into a cowlick at the rear of his skull,... there was a butterfly on his chin, his neck was open to the spinal cord and the blood there was thick and shiny and it was this wound that had killed him." (Vietnam: A watershed in war writing) This is the unique grievance that is reflected by the author and involves that war hurts as does killing of people.

The writings clearly show an easily recognized physical and emotional effect and this is the requirement of the unknown and along with this the requirement of releasing tension. This is reflected in the transfer of even the experience of Vietnam. This is accentuated through the use of "you" instead of the grammatical "I." This exists even when common experiences of all soldiers are presented. This is the problem of fear in facing up to truth and always backed up through the soldier admitting to be weak. It is true that a difference exists between the ordinary citizens and the combat experienced writer, but the narrative is done in a manner to bring them close. The author keeps on using a language that was being used by the soldiers of that time, and this difficult, but there is ready translation for explanations for the reader. One of these is the meaning of "Pinkville." This is "GI slang for Song My, parent village of My Laithe Batangan Peninsula or the Athletic Field, appropriately named for its flat acreage of grass and rice paddy." (Truth and fiction in Tim O'Brien's if I die in a Combat Zone and the Things They Carried) in all his writings he has made the geography of Vietnam understandable to Americans, along with his chaotic experiences as a soldier. (Truth and fiction in Tim O'Brien's if I die in a Combat Zone and the Things They Carried)

This attempt goes on side by side with his efforts to use a poetic language. This is in description of a dead body and he probably does not like to talk about the injuries suffered and the general sufferings of war. At the same time, the style is expected to give the reader an idea of what is happening, and that too in a more refined version. In his language there are poetic references for the brutality and masculinity of war as feminine features. He has talked about the "star shaped hole" and this reminds most about the American flag as also the expectation of the country to kill and destroy for the country.

At the same time, the language is graphic enough to indicate the bloodshed that is going on all around. All combined these bring out the emotion draining nature of war. These probably reflect that O'Brien probably could not come to terms with war, which was expected of him, but was not possible due to the voice of his conscience. The sum total is that he was able to match the image of being a part of the killers that was expected. This is also a reflection on his personal vulnerability and insecurity that haunted him through the war. This reflects the character of a storyteller and social critic, which is probably what he wants to be. This enables him to convince people into believing that his works are fictions rather then real accounts of war. (Vietnam: A watershed in war writing)

The relationship of O'Brien and My Lai goes back for a number for years as he had served in a combat unit there one year after the infamous massacre. This experience is reflected in if I die in a combat zone, Box me up and Ship me home. He had gone through a lot of information before he wrote "In the lake of the Woods" and this had convinced him that the incident in My Lai was a "grotesque, monstrous, obscene evil" and yet he was sad to note that not many Americans are still shameful about the obscene incident. He felt that Americans have forgotten the lessons of Vietnam as also My Lai. He has written in "The Vietnam in me" as "All this is history. Dead as those dead women and kids" the memory lives on in his writings though forgotten as the history of My Lai. This will not happen for the readers of "In the lake of the Woods" for the description of the butchery that took place is defined by the author in a very graphic manner. The butchery that took place at My Lai should remain a constant prick in the heart of America about the Vietnam War. (My Lai, Flies, and Beelzebub in Tim O'Brien's in the Lake of the Woods)

O'Brien has constantly continued his demand for well told stories about Vietnam and this is through the quality and quantity of his own work. He has also asserted that if all the events in Vietnam were reflected as war fiction, then it would be very difficult to write down all the destruction that took place during that combat. This happening is due to the eyes of the soldiers being blinded by the expectation of certain events expected at the end of the war, and this stopped them from recognizing individual events as important. O'Brien has said himself that whether the incident actually took place or not is not relevant for war stories. There has to be a continuing element of fiction, and the events that occurred in Vietnam should be seen in light of the total happenings. This makes some critics say that some of his writings are really a continuation of other events and the example is "The Things They Carried." This is a reworking of "How to tell a true war story." (Vietnam: A watershed in war writing) at the same time, the author has suggested that war stories always try to find out the truth and this is what leads to the continuous repetition of events that have taken place. The repetition still ends up telling people of the impact of the devastation of war in terms of men and material. (Vietnam: A watershed in war writing)