tim o’brien the things they carried
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Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried. AP English Language and Composition. “About Tim O’Brien: A Profile”. O’Brien primarily a writer of fiction - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
AP English Language and Composition
“About Tim O’Brien: A Profile”O’Brien primarily a writer of fictionVowed to stop writing fiction in 1994; a few months later, published a famous essay in the NYT describing his return to My Lai, site of a four hour massacre
From 1969-1970, O’Brien was an infantryman in the Quang Ngai province; his platoon was stationed in My Lai a year after the massacre
Background on Tim O’BrienThen and now, he could feel evil in My Lai
In the NYT cover story, O’Brien draws parralels between the “guilt, depression, terror, shame” that infects his Vietnam experience and present life
Contemplates suicideO’Brien writes in the article, “Last night suicide was on my mind. Not whether, but how.”
Background on Tim O’BrienBorn in 1946Raised in small-town MinnesotaFather was an insurance salesmanMother an elementary school teacher
As a child, O’Brien was lonely, overweight, and a “dreamer”
Practiced magic tricks
Background on Tim O’BrienHad political aspirations going into college
Became a political science major at Macalester
Attended peace vigils and war protests
Planned to join the State Department to reform its policies
Background on Tim O’BrienDrafted as an infantryman upon graduation
Seriously considered deserting to Canada
Now thinks it was cowardly not to desert to Canada, but in 1968, he feared the disapproval of family and friends
Tim O’Brien, after the war…Received a Purple Heart after being wounded by shrapnel from a hand grenade
Pursued a doctorate at the Harvard School of Government
Began writing his first book, If I Die in Combat, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, while at Harvard
Tim O’Brien, after the war…If I Die in Combat published in 1973Became national affairs reporter for The Washington Post
Writes several more books including The Nuclear Age in 1985 and TTTC in 1990.
TTTC finalist for Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award
Tim O’Brien, after the war…Latest novel, In the Lake of the
WoodsConsiders this his best work yetWrites every day, all day; known for
being meticulous, fanaticalSome editors and critics suggest he
should move on from VietnamWill most likely continue to write
about the war
Love and WarHis books are universalWar stories as much as love storiesO’Brien says, “I’ve had the twins of love and evil. They intertwine and intermix. They’ll separate, sometimes, yet they’re hooked the way valances are hooked together. The emotions in war and in our ordinary lives are, if not identical, damn similar.”
Tim O’Brien Then and Now
Note: Information taken from Ploughshares, the
Literary Journal at Emerson CollegeWritten by Don Lee (http://www.pshares.org)