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If I Die In A Combat Zone Analysis

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If I Die In A Combat Zone Analysis
Tim O’Brien, author of If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home attempted to reveal the true horrors accounted for during the Vietnam war that changed many people’s lives in a sullen way by narrating personal stories from memory, showing his revamped lifestyle, and psychologically explaining how the draft affected Americans.
O’Brien demonstrates through his writing how evil the war actually was. Toe poppers, Bouncing Betties, booby-trapped artillery, mortar round and hand grenades were just a few of the deadly weapons used to kill soldiers (ch. 16). While O’Brien was in My Khe, the Viet Cong had ambushed Alpha Company. After a hand grenade skidded across O’Brien’s helmet and exploded, expecting to be dead, he survived because Clauson took most of the force. O’Brien’s only reaction was to scream and beg for an end …show more content…
O’Briens encounter with the grenade is a symbol of lost hope and altered expectations, Alpha Company was not expecting to be ambushed because the people of My Khe 3 kept silent and let them walk into it, proving how evil one or many can become for the sake of war (ch. 13). After taking a resupply of food, mail, Coke, and beer safely on top of a hill above farms, where farmers were tending to their rice, lieutenant Mad Mark used his M-14 rifle and shot one of the farmers in the leg. Without much thought, only wounding the farmer, Mad Mark had drastically altered the farmer’s life (ch. 13). During the battle at Bull Run, napalm was dropped, soldiers were run over by tracks, rocket-propelled grenades were used on the American soldiers. O’Brien recounts the experience, and explains how during the battle at
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