THE TH IN G S T HE Y

CARRIED
TIM O’BRIEN

BY: BRITTANY PIQUET

UNUSUAL BIRTH
• O’Brien did not agree with the war. He felt
that it was just a blood bath without a
purpose.

• “I was twenty-one years old. Young, yes,

and politically naïve, but even so the
American war in Vietnam seemed to me
wrong, Certain blood was being shed for
uncertain reasons” (O’Brien 40).
CALL TO ADVENTURE
• There was a war that was slightly overlooked.
Soldiers were needed, and conscription was
used to solve the problem.

• O’Brien was drafted.

• “I was drafted to fight a war I hated” (40).
• At first, he rejected and chose a different path.
 CROSSING THE THRESHOLD
• He was going to try escaping to Canada.
• “I headed straight west along the Rainy River, which
separates Minnesota from Canada, and which separated
one life from another” (47).

• He chose another separate life, war for his country.

• “And what was so sad, I realized, was that Canada had
become a pitiful fantasy […] I would go to the war—I
would kill and maybe die—because I was embarrassed
not to” (57 & 59).
 MENTOR AND WEAPON
• There was not a very relevant mentor, or even a weapon, for O’Brien in the novel.
• Elroy Berdahl: He was an old man who helped Tim realize he did not want to make
a run for it. He lives on the bank of the Rainy River.
• “He offered exactly what I needed, without questions, without any words at all. He
took me in. He was there at the critical time—a silent, watchful presence” (48).

• His writing could be considered his weapon. He developed it through his voyage
and used it to cope.
• “I’m still writing war stories. […] I should forget it. But the thing about
remembering is that you don’t forget. You take your material where you find it”
(34).

•
 CHALLENGES
Some of his trials include:
• He was shot twice.
• At one point, he killed a Vietnamese soldier that later did not appear
to have been a threat, or even belonged in the war.

• Kiowa died. He was one of the few positive soldiers in the company
which caused him to be good friends with the rest of the troop.
• “Kiowa, after all, had been a close friend, and for years I’ve avoided
thinking about his death and my own complicity in it. Even here
it’s not easy” (160).
 ABYSS
• After O’Brien was shot, Kiley was in a hospital, so the new medic,
Jorgenson, treated O’Brien. He was still very new and did a very
bad job which cost O’Brien a large amount of pain, which he
resented him for.

• “Those boots: I remembered them from when I got shot. Out along
the Song Tra Bong, a bullet inside me, all that pain” (198).

• Later, he and Azar rigged some things to frighten Jorgenson and

get back at him (201-216).
 TRANSFORMATION
• He matured and became more aware of the sad reality of the real
world. He also gained an appreciation for the war.

• “I’d come to this war a quiet, thoughtful sort of person, a college

grad, Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude, all the
credentials, but after seven months in the bush I realized that
those high, civilized trappings had somehow been crushed
under the weight of the simple daily realities. I’d turned mean
inside. Even a little cruel at times. For all my education, all my
fine liberal values, I now felt a deep coldness inside me” (200).
 RETURN TO HOME
• After being shot the second time, Tim was not put back into the
wilderness. He was stationed at a base. This was much less
demanding, both physically and mentally. The book never
mentioned the time when he made it back home, but this is
when he is put back into something resembling society.
• “I guess the higher-ups decided I’d been shot enough. At the end
of December, when I was released from the 91st Evac Hospital,
they transferred me over to Headquarters Company—S-4, the
battalion supply section. Compared with the boonies it was
cushy duty” (191).
 MASTERY OF TWO WORLDS
• He combined the two worlds by writing about
them. This way the tragic parts he did not like
thinking about could be changed to much more
pleasant scenes.

• “I feel guilty sometimes. Forty-three years old and

I’m still writing war stories […] As a writer, all
you can do is pick a street and go for the ride,
putting things down as they come at you. That’s
the real obsession. All those stories” (34-35).