Fear and Courage in Tim O'Brien's if I Die in a Combat Zone, Going After Cacciato, and the Things They Carried.

After serving a tour as an infantryman in Vietnam 1969-1970, Tim OBrien returned to the United States and began a career as a writer. He has since published six books and numerous short stories and has distinguished himself as an accomplished author in the process. Three of his books, If I Die in a Combat Zone 1973, Going After Cacciato 1978, and The Things They Carried 1990, deal specifically with the Vietnam war. In these works OBrien clearly establishes fear as both a dominant aspect of the experience and an essential component necessary for the display of courage, one of his most significant considerations. He portrays bravery as an individuals ability to perform acts and make decisions despite apprehension, and he reveals the difficulty of demonstrating fortitude in the morally ambiguous environment of Vietnam where the horror of death was often secondary to that of cowardice. Ultimately, however, although the arena of armed combat provides a unique setting in which to display human conduct and consciousness, the link between courage and fear that OBrien illustrates is not a war issue but rather a universal one. The strength of his writing lies in his ability to depict this intricate relationship in a manner that is relevant to humanity as a whole. furthermore, his vivid presentation of the Vietnam conflict, without anti-war protest or political agenda, makes its own case for the prevention of a similar sacrifice of human lives and innocence in the future.