Tim O Brien's Morality

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a unique piece of American literature, as the book challenges traditional values of morality through the retelling of O’Brien’s wartime experiences in Vietnam. The novel varies between fact and fiction in attempts to evoke and repress certain emotions encompassing the reader, as the book deals with both internal and external conflict. Throughout the story, the reader sees O’Brien’s ethical values through his thoughts and actions, as they clash often throughout the story. One interesting theme derived from this conflict is O’Brien’s idea of cowardice, and why he believes himself to be a coward as a consequence of his actions. Tim O’Brien illustrates his transformation of ethical values through the idea …show more content…
In “On The Rainy River,” O’Brien clearly states that he believes himself to be a coward, saying, “I survived, but it’s not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war.” (O’Brien 58). However, in “The Ghost Soldiers,” O’Brien doesn’t make implications on his thoughts obvious to the reader. After he scares Jorgenson his actions reflect regret and guilt. He says, “I was trembling. I kept hugging myself, rocking, but I couldn't make it go away.” (O’Brien 206). When reading this quote, the reader can assume the “it” O’Brien is talking about is his trembling, but this sentence goes much deeper than that. O’Brien is talking about the guilt, guilt that came from scaring Jorgenson, and not being able to stop Azar from throwing a tear gas grenade at him, guilt from letting himself change into a person that would hurt another person, and the guilt from actually killing a man. The reality of his situation comes flooding back to him in that second and he simply can’t handle it. Going out into the night to get revenge on Jorgenson seems brave and daring, but in reality, O’Brien believes he is still a coward. This provokes the reader to question O’Brien’s definition of cowardice, and the idea of cowardice

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