Where Have You Gone Charming Billy Analysis

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True War Tim O’Brien, the author of “Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?”, explains, in small parts, what war was really like. He defines how ghastly war is, and what goes through your head. How war can get lonely as you are away from your home. He also describes how emotional war can get as people die around you. Have you ever wondered how war really is? It’s not only going to be unforgettable at times, but also terrifying. There are going to be many things to be scared of while at war, and the top thing to be scared of is, dying. “He would tell his mother how it smelled: mud and algae and cattle manure and chlorophyll; decay, breeding mosquitoes and leeches as big as mice; the fecund warmth of the paddy waters rising up to his cut knee. But he would not tell how frightened he had been” (O’Brien 198). It’s okay to be scared, because everyone that is there, is also scared. …show more content…
Sometimes you might get lonely and try to think of home and the memories you’ve made as a child. “He pretended that when he opened his eyes, his father would talk softly about whatever came to mind and then roll into their sleeping bags, and that later they’d wake up and it would be morning and there would not be a war, and that Billy Boy Watkins had not died of a heart attack that afternoon” (O’Brien 198). People at war, mostly do that to keep their minds off of what they are doing. Men and women that have come back from battling sometimes still have the feeling of being at war, and can’t get their minds off

Where Have You Gone Charming Billy Analysis

Where Have You Gone Charming Billy? War is an emotional time when it is pure chaos. Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam war for 2 years. He wrote the book “Where Have You Gone Charming Billy?”. He wants his readers to understand that war can make you feel regretful, traumatized, and scared. When you are a soldier in combat, there is multiple emotions that can be running through your head. Tim O’Brien wants his readers to understand the war can make them feel regretful of something that they did when…

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Where Have You Gone Charming Billy Analysis

Tim O'Brien was the author of the story “Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?”. He was actually a young man that went to war and like lots of men he did not know what he was doing. He did not know anything about war. He heard lots of stories about the war. The war was a big deal back then. What do you think war is like do you think it is happy or bitter, scary or happy. The war can be a truly a scary thing you will be scared to die. You will not want to walk alone. “Now, as he stepped out of the…

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Where Have You Gone Charming Billy Analysis

Tim O’Brien the author of “Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?” uses this story to teach us about war. In this story O’Brien shows us the effect war has on a person. Also he wants us to understand that soldiers use many techniques to keep their mind off the war. The author shows us conditions soldiers endure. By writing the story “Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?” Tim O’Brien gives us an understanding of war. War can and will affect person’s life. Due to fighting in a war soldiers form habits…

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Where Have You Gone Charming Billy Character Analysis

experience. Soldier’s have to face difficult times when engaging into battle. Other stories about war could be made up and still have the characters experience the war on what is happening around them or what will happen. Tim O’Brien’s short story, “Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy,” takes place in the Vietnam war. The main character Paul Berlin, goes through emotional trauma while he was fighting in the battlefield. Paul’s emotional trauma began when he experienced Billy (Paul’s ally) extremely…

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Where Have You Gone Charming Billy Character Analysis

In “Where Have You Gone Charming Billy” by Tim O’Brien, an American novelist, the setting creates a few different conflicts for the characters. One problem the setting presents is that it makes the characters physically uncomfortable. The characters “[scraped their] knees, [groped] as though blind, and [their] boots sank into the thick paddy”(O’Brien 1) because it was dark and sloppy. This was an inconvenience and nuisance; consequently, the characters were constantly uncomfortable. Not only did…

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