O'Brien's intentions in TTTC

Tim O'Brien's intent is to convince his audience, the reader, that nothing is one sided, black or white, good or bad. In his novel's cultural context, his idea is extremely relevant due to the widespread controversy regarding the War in Vietnam. The war was debated and regarded by its protesters as a terrible thing, yet seen by its advocates as necessary. From the perspective of a soldier, specifically Tim O'Brien, "war is grotesque, but in truth war is also beauty," due to the "astonishing" visual appeal of things such as "the purply orange glow of napalm, [and] the rocket's red glare," despite their negative connotations (O'Brien 77). Tim O'Brien applies his general idea to war in order to alienate his readers from their ability to question and/or disagree with his opinion, because the majority of them have never been to war. He uses his war experienced perspective as well as the second person narrative to do so. Placed in a war situation by O'Brien, "you must cross the river and go into the mountains and do terrible things and maybe die," and therefore you, the reader, must take O'Brien's opinions as truth and assent to his idea.

Tobias Burger 3 Nov 2010