How Tim O'Brien Educated Me.

The Things They Carried is a great book. It's so different compared to other literature on the Vietnam war. Growing up, I heard a lot of negative comments about the government during the Vietnam war. That seems to be the only thing I was educated on: The government's involvement. The Things They Carried really shot at emotion. Tim O'Brien, the author, didn't bother to write about the government's overwhelming power during the war. He wrote about the war in a different perspective. Not in the eyes of someone on U.S soil but through the eyes of a soldier in a war zone. This really brought out the emotion. He makes it clear that Vietnam had the power to change people. Not the government or anything like that, but just being in a war in Vietnam. In his writing one can easily tell that the war was gruesome. War is gruesome, but the violence in Vietnam was life changing. I always hear how America is and always has been patriotic down to the last battle throughout history, but this book totally disagrees with that. The killing in Vietnam was quick and unexpected at times which is different than a lot of the battles fought in the past. Soldiers had buddies in the jungle that would be shot dead at random times which had a lot of negative affects on them. In this book Tim O'Brien even writes about how vetrans are still dealing with the deaths in Vietnam today. I grew up learning about the government action in Vietnam. The question was always raised: Should the U.S have gone to war in Vietnam. That question is a serious question, but Tim O'brien doesn't really ask that. I asked myself after reading: Was the Vietnam war worth all of the human sacrifice? Vietnamese and American? This book clearly taught me that it was not worth it. It wasn't then, and It still isn't today.