Tim O Brien Themes

In the beginning of the story he finds out that he has made a mistake in joining the army he’s scared out of his mind. He kept dreaming about times where he was safe or at home with his parents. He envisions the future of him being alive and having war buddies and talking about his war experiences with them. He wasn’t just scared of dying, he’s also scared of fear itself, ha, that’s ironic isn’t it. He wants to share with his parents all the details of his experiences but he doesn’t want to tell them how scared he was so they would be proud of him. He meets a guy and chats with him about Billy dying and what he thinks about the war. The guy offers him gum and water, and tells Berlin to stay calm he’ll eventually get used to it. They talk about Billy’s death and Berlin wonders what the parents expressions would be as they received the telegram saying that their son died that day being scared to death. He started laughing uncontrollably and he didn’t want to stop because he knew as soon as he would stop he would be afraid, and get very emotional. He didn’t want to die like Billy did, he didn’t want to die to the thought of him dying. Berlin’s reasoning for joining the army I
Though the main messages I think he was trying to persuade the readers would have to be Fear, Courage, Perseverance. Paul Berlin, went through a lot of fear throughout the whole story, and he experiences them in different levels, from Billy dying, the hazardous environment, his fear of dying, or just his fear of fear itself. He knew if wanted to survive this war he would need to have a lot of courage, he needed to be brave and when people die around him he would just have to push through and not be scared. Speaking of pushing through, perseverance is another trait Paul had, he could’ve just left the war but he didn’t, he choose to fight through and not give