Tim O Brien Character Analysis

Words: 327
Pages: 2

Tim O’Brien’s real fear in The Things We Carry is not what could happen to him if he went to war, but rather that his family and friends would look at him as a coward.
While O’Brien is on the border of the US and Canada, attempting to flee to Canada to avoid being drafted into Vietnam, he realizes that he must not flee. Once at Tip Top Lodge in Minnesota, he reflects on why he is where he is. He writes, “What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame. Hot, stupid shame. I did not want people to think badly of me” (O’Brien 52). Tim knows the devastation of war and what it can ultimately do to lives. He thinks about where he comes from, and their views on the draft and what they would think of him if he fled the country to avoid war. He