Tim O’Brien Essay Example for Free

Tim OBrien EssayTim OBrien is a well-know war writer, probably the most famous war writer of our time solely withal a writer virtually relationships that disintegrate and how they do so. His novels hinge on his have got experiences in the Vietnam War or the time leading up to that experience. But he is not a typical writer of war. In Tim OBriens novels, OBrien blurs the lines between right and portrayal of truth or fiction. In essence, he says that there is no such thing as truth. Truth depends on the perception of the person experiencing the episode and what goes on in the look of this person. The truth fades and shifts or is illuminated further in the manifesting.Truth is slippery and ever-changing and completely subjective. He blurs these lines over and over again to show the reviewer the slippery slope of what we call truth. OBrien, in some ways, can tell the same varietys of stories but with a different focus so they are completely new. Overall, OBrien believes in t he power of stories. As OBrien says, Im a believer in the power of stories, whether theyre uncoiled or embellished, and exaggerated, or utterly made up. A good degree has a power that transcends the question of factuality or actuality (Bonn). OBriens novel styles and themes bring down right from the start of his career. . If I Die in the Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home was published in 1973. It is a memoir which deals with Vietnam and the theatrical role around My Lai. It was the first book that began OBriens genre of what is called seminal nonfiction. And then issue forths his first published novel, Northern Lights discusses two brothers. One has returned from war wound and the two brothers are uncomfortable with their own bes as well as their relationships with their father, who has died. His themes of war and disintegration of relationships begin to be shown in this novel.He continues with these themes in departure After Cacciato published in 1978 and the Nuclear Age in 1985. Going After Caccioto is the story of a soldier who decides to run away from the Vietnam War. In many another(prenominal) ways, this novel is an earlier telling of a story from The Things They Carried. The short story On the Rainy River retells this novel, only with a different ending, which sheathizes OBriens creative nonfiction. In other words, the novel is another way that the story could have ended, not necessarily the way it did end. Nuclear Age is a discussion of how we would live if confronted with the possibility of nuclear extinction.Then in 1990 he seems to hit a stride and critical acclaim with The Things They Carried. This is a collection of short stories but also a novel in itself as it begins and ends with the same story. The book begins with the quote, This is a work of fiction. Except for a few details regarding the authors own life, all the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary (OBrien). Two pages later OBrien provides a dedication to the wo rkforce of Alpha Company, and in particular to Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, snitch Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Henry Dobbins, and Kiowa. (OBrien). These are the novels main characters. The reviewer is meant to question the blur of the lines between fact and fiction. The reader is meant to ask, Why OBrien would be thanking these men if this work is entirely fiction? In this book, Tim OBrien manages this blur of truth in many other ways as well. One of those ways is that he creates a narrator who is modeled after himself. This narrator is a Harvard grad, a draughted Vietnam War vet, and goes by the name of Tim OBrien. The reader is encouraged to connect the narrator with the author as a way to question what is true. The narrator says, I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer than happening-truth (OBrien 203).When asked in an interview, What do you say when people ask, Are these stories true? Tim replies, Tim I tell them to reread the book. Its kind of the point of the book What is truth? Tim explains more soundly when he talks in the same interview about getting to a deeper truth through fiction.One of the chapters in The Things They Carried is about a character with my name going to the Canadian border. He meets an old man up there, almost crosses into Canada but doesnt. I never literally did any of these things, but I thought about it. It was all happening in my dreams and in my head. And the one thing fiction can do is make it seem real. To let the reader participate in this kid making this journey and it feels handle its really happening. You hope the readers asking the same questions that you were back then. You know, like What would I do? Would I go to Canada? What do I think of war? So nonetheless if the story never happened, literally, it happened in my head. If I were to tell you the literal truth about that summer, the truth would be that I played a lot of golf and worried a lot about the draft (Curran). In other wor ds, what is the real meaning of truth? OBrien plays with this concept over and over in his fiction. The portrays the strangeness of how the mind works when dealing with memories and theoretic situations.In the Lake of the Woods published in 1994 A spooked veteran who has secrets discovers that his wife has secrets too. Both of these people escape to the inner recesses of their own minds in order to come to some kind of terms with their lives. OBrien shows his mastery at blurring the lines between reality and fantasy here as well as the novel focuses on two of his favorite subjects, war and failing relationships. As the couple struggles with the secrets in their relationship, OBrien uncovers that fact that truth is what we say it is, and what we say determines how and what we think. He continues to blur the lines even further with an essay called The Vietnam in Me in 1994 in which he goes back to Vietnam twenty years later to reflect on the experiences of the Vietnam War. This essay also explores the declivity of a relationship for him. He basically tries to reconcile what really happened in My Lai in his mind after all these years while faced with the offer opening up between he and Kate.His more recent work changes focus just a bit. War becomes more secondary content. In gobbler in Love (1998) this humorous story or black comedy as it is called in the Gadfly interview is told from the perspective of a sexist prof who attempts to deal with the disintegration of his relationship. However, he tries to wreak revenge on his ex-wife by sabotaging her current relationship. And in July, July (2002) ten friends reunite about 30 years after they graduate. They find that many of the same things haunt them now as haunted them then, only they are at totally different places in their lives. This story is some(prenominal) like The Things they Carried in that the individual stories are tied together in the end. One of the characters has been through Vietnam, but more th an anything this book is again about re-telling of the truth. The truths that these characters had identify for themselves thirty years ago are different in many ways than their truths of today. Does that make them any less true? When asked about the various truths of this novel,BRC Your books, and their characters, presentation a certain amount of moral ambiguitya sense of this is true but that also is trueor both could be true at the same time. Does this reflect your personal philosophy?TO Yes. Truth evolves. Truth is fluid. Truth is a function of language. (If I were to say to you, Its now 1000 A.M., I would be telling the truth of Boston, Massachusetts, but not the truth of Tokyo Japan). A lie, sometimes, can be truer than the truth, which is why fiction gets written. (Bookreporter).Ultimately Tim OBrien is a writer who deserves all the acclaim he gets as he has much to say not only about war and relationships but about the very essence of truth itself. He is a storyteller in e very sense of the word and believes in the power of stories, no matter what kind they are. In an interview, he clearly demonstrates his philosophy about the power of storytelling and truth.Interviewer What can stories do for us?Tim Stories do a lot for us. They can help us heal. They can make us feel part of something bigger. We all tell stories to ourselvesabout today and tomorrowwe live our lives based on a story we tell ourselves. And were constantly adjusting ithoping for a happy ending. (Curran)He describes good fiction as fiction that makes us look inside ourselves and OBrien is a master even when the content of the stories are not typical for most of us. He can make us look at courage and truth and evaluate our own relationships all in the reading of his fiction.Works CitedTim OBrien, Novelist. Retrieved November 27, 2007 at vane Site http//illyria.com/tobhp.htmlIver, Pico, Missing in Contemplation, Time Magazine. 2001, Retrieved November 27, 2007 at Web Site http//www.time. com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101941024-163119,00.htmlBonn, Maria S. Can Stories Save Us? Tim OBrien and the Efficacy of the Text, Critique, Fall 1994, No 1 2-5.Brien, The Things They Carried, Broadway Publishing. 1991.Curran, Colleen. Tim OBrien discusses The Things They Carried in Richmond for GO READ. Nov. 11, 2003. Retrieved November 27, 2007 at http//www.richmond.com/ae/output.aspx?Article_ID=2730476Tim OBrien. Retrieved November 30. 2007 at Web Site http//www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-obrien-tim.asp