O'Brien

Tim O’Brien is an amazing writer. He uses amazing details such as talking about the weight of everything they carried in the first chapter and their personal items they carry that individualize them. This creates great character development. He carries the character development throughout the book dedicating a chapter to specifically talk about one of his comrades such “The Dentist” where he talks about how Rat is terrified of the dentist and yet makes him pull out a tooth to prove something even though no one else cares. Also in the chapter “Stockings” where O’Brien tells Henry Dobbins story about carrying a pair of his girlfriend’s stockings that are magic and save him from death. In the chapter “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” Tim tells a story that Rat tells him about a girl Martha who came to visit her boyfriend Mark while he’s at war. Even though this story is not possible, the way O’Brien writes this it makes you root for it to be true. It also is a way to show how the soldiers that start of innocent and jaded completely change and become different due to the war. Some even get bored with the peace and want war which is a theme he brings in multiple times in the story.