Themes in O'Brien's Writing

Ever since I read "How to Tell a True War Story" by Tim O'Brien I immediately fell in love with his themes and writing techniques. To start, I really enjoy his use of dark humor. When he describes Kurt Lemon stepping into the light and his body parts being blown into a tree and calls it a "Lemon" tree I was really interested in more of his work. I'm not in any way saying that body parts being blown into a tree is humorous, but the way O'Brien uses dark humor to describe the event is brilliant. I was particularly interested in this technique because usually when I read war stories there is absolutely no humor. Because most people are too scared to joke about things that happen in the war. But O'Brien is definitely not afraid to go that far and I love his individuality. O'Brien also uses the theme of embarrassment being a reason to go to war. He talks about this in "On a Rainy River". He states, "I couldn't ensure the mockery, or the disgrace, or the patriotic ridicule...It had nothing to do with morality. Embarrassment, that's all it was...I would go to the war...I would kill and maybe die...because I was embarassed not to"(O'Brien 57). It is one of my favorite passages of the text because I can really relate to it. I never realized how many things I actually did or accomplished because I was too embarassed not to. Another obvious them is in "The Things They Carried". O'Brien uses the theme of the emotional burdens and physical things people carry. He talks about the weight of particular things people carry such as M&M's and a picture of a loved one and also talks about intangible things they carry such as guilt and fear. It's a really interesting contrast and sparked my creative writing interests.