Where Have You Gone Charming Billy Character Analysis

Tim O'Brien who was born in Austin, Minnesota on October 1, 1946 wrote many stories including his famous "The Things They Carried" he also wrote a short story called "Where Have You Gone Charming Billy" In the story Tim O'Brien uses his experiences from being with the army to create a very interesting story about the Vietnam war, and the experiences some soldiers had in it.(Reed and O'Brien) Tim O'Brien frequently uses experiences and memories of the characters to effectively create the theme, war is scarier than it seems. He created this theme by using the characters. For example private Berlin closed his eyes and pretended he was at a campfire with his dad as a child just because of his fear of reality, the war. "Paul Berlins character

Used many characters and things in the story to create the theme, war is scarier than it seems. O'Brien did this very effectively because like I said, he was actually in war. The Vietnam war. "After studying political science in college O'Brien was drafted into the Vietnam war." (Editors of encyclopedia Britannia) O'Brien used all his experiences from the war to write "Where Have You Gone Charming Billy". "He collected his newspaper and magazine articles about his war experiences in his first book, "If I Die in a Combat Zone." (Tim O'Brien an American author) He also used all his experiences very well to create the theme. Some of the earlier examples that support his experiences to help create the theme of war is scarier than it s seems. First, Berlin was waiting and out off all the fear he closed his eyes and pretended like he was back at the campfire with his dad as a kid. Second there is Berlins uncontrollable laughter when he thought back to billys death. And finally when Berlin smelled and heard the relaxing sea and still was afraid. All these examples and Tim O'Briens first hand expirences with war effective create the theme war is scarier than it