O'Brian
William Timothy O'Brien has written many stories during his lifetime. The first of which he wrote when he was nine years old. "Timmy of the Little League" was an autobiography of a youngster involved in sports (Myers, 143). As Tim was growing up, he took a break from writing. He began again while serving in the Vietnam war. When he began writing again, he quickly readapted to an autobiographical style of writing. These wartime stories are what has made O'Brien one of the leading writers today. His style is often compared to other factfiction writers; such as Hemmingway, Fitzgerald and Faulkner (Myers, 144). It is said by critics that O'Brien uses a lot of the same plot ideas as used by these other famous wartime authors. Even though similar plots are used, O'Brien uses his own experiences to make the stories realistic and inspirational. The same basic themes runs throughout all of O'Brien's stories. According to Thomas Myers, all of O'Brien's work contains these basic principles: "the continual interplay of fact and imagination in fiction and in life; the compulsive, absurd, noble quest for human truth; the difficulty in defining and obtaining the elusive quality of courage; and ongoing hum
Soon after these books were written O'Brien won The National Book Award. This award is what won O'Brien the title of a war time novelist. In The Nuclear Age, O'Brien drifts away from his war theme, however he still focuses on fear and courage. The main character in The Nuclear Age was afraid of nuclear holocaust. He built bomb shelters and eventually ended up killing himself and loved ones because he could not escape his fearful fantasy world. This novel reached mixed criticism. In Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 40, James Marcus says that like Going After Cacciato this new novel is based on a fantasy world. Marcus feels that this novel did not contain the heart that made so many of O'Brien's novels famous.(348) O'Brien has said that "It comes down to gut instinct. A true war story, if truly told, makes the stomach believe."(Meyers, 153) Unfortunately, The Nuclear Age did not have as much heart as the rest of O'Brien's works. This novel, although not a failure, caused O'Brien to go back to his war time stories. The first chapter is about the things the soldiers carried with them on the battle field. He started by discussing the tools of war they carried. "The weapon weighed 7.5 pounds, 8.2 pounds with its full 20-round magazine." He then got to the actual emotions the soldiers carried. One soldier carried the burden of a love that was at home. Another carried drugs to help him escape the war. All of these soldiers had special memories that they carried with them while fighting. Some of these burdens were factual, like the weight of objects, and the intense fear felt by the soldiers. Others, such as the "love
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Approximate Word count = 1114
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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