“This Is True”: Between the Memory and History of Tim O’Brien’s Trauma
"Hey, you're looking better," he said. "No doubt about it. All you needed was time-some mental R&R."
Then he said, "Man, I'm sorry."
Then later he said, "Why not talk about it?"
Then he said, "Come on, man, talk."
He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star- shaped hole.
"Talk," Kiowa said.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, pg. 80
Vietnam War veterans may have left the country’s dark jungles, but traces of it are left in the dark recesses of their memories. For Tim O’Brien this darkness obscures many elements of who he is as an author. In balancing the history of his past and the memory he is left with, O’Brien’s darkness swallows scholar Pierre Nora’s conceptions of past and history and spits them out in the form of a slippery memory-history hybrid that proves hard to handle for audiences seeking to place it in the literary binary of fiction and nonfiction. O’Brien’s hybrid brings readers into a whole new en
Tim O’Brien is one of the most influential writers of the Vietnam War era, known for his powerful and poignant depictions of soldiers and their experiences in combat. In this comprehensive biography, we delve into the life and works of this literary icon, exploring his early years, his time in the military, and the impact of his writing on American literature and culture. Through interviews with O’Brien himself, as well as with family members, friends, and colleagues, we gain a deeper understanding of the man behind the words, and the enduring legacy of his work.
Early Life and Education
Tim O’Brien was born on October 1, , in Austin, Minnesota. He grew up in Worthington, a small town in southwestern Minnesota, where his father worked as an insurance salesman and his mother was a homemaker. O’Brien attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he earned a degree in political science in After graduation, he was drafted into the United States Army and served in Vietnam from to His experiences in the war would later become the basis for much of his writing.
Early Writing Career
Tim O’Brien’s early writing career was marked by a de
Tim O&#;Brien Biography
“Storytelling is the essential human activity. The harder the situation, the more essential it is. In Vietnam men were constantly telling one another stories about the war. Our unit lost a lot of guys around My Lai, but the stories they told stay around after them. I would be mad not to tell the stories I know.”—Tim O’Brien
Award-winning author Tim O’Brien is best known for his fictional portrayals of the Vietnam conflict. He was born in in Austin, Minn., and spent most of his youth in the small town of Worthington, Minn. He graduated summa cum laude from Macalester College in From February to March he served as infantryman with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, after which he pursued graduate studies in government at Harvard University. He worked as a national affairs reporter for The Washington Post from to
Tim O’Brien is the author of Going After Cacciato, which received the National Book Award in fiction, and The Things They Carried, which received France’s prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and was also a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In the Lake of the Woods, a work of fiction publishe
Tim O'Brien Biography
The Things They Carried Author/Context
Though The Things They Carried is mainly fiction, Tim O'Brien did fight in Vietnam, and he has been telling "true war stories" since he returned from the war. His stories come from his own experiences, and his desire to blur the lines between reality and fiction, between created character and living person. He believes that stories are born from real events, and therefore are forever linked to them. He, like the narrator in Carried, grew up in a small town in Minnesota, in a town much like Norman Bowker's hometown: people were patriotic and hardworking, but not very thoughtful. O'Brien began writing at a young age, and soon after became interested in politics; both pursuits were supported by his family. O'Brien admired John F. Kennedy, and, like the Tim O'Brien of Carried, disliked the political ignorance of his hometown. He also admired his father, who read obsessively and had a great respect for knowledge. However, his father was an alcoholic, which strained their relationship at times, and made Tim insecure and lonely.
O'Brien escaped to college, where he learned to love literature and, for the first time,
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