Tim O Brien

486 Words2 Pages
The American essayist and social critic H.L Menken, believe that “the average man does not be free. He simply wants to be safe.” In contemporary society teenagers want to fit in and go through peer pressure; do things they really do not want to take part in. In the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien did not want to go to the Vietnam War. O’Brien was looking for someone else to take the decision for him, to go to Canada and be safe than go to war and fear for his life. As people we want to feel safe in an environment no matter if we are free or not; since it would not matter if we are constantly fearing of what might happen to us as individuals. Now days teenagers want to do what their friends are doing and what is cool or not. Some youth start to drink or smoke and put their life at danger to show they’re capable of participating in certain activities. Not every teenager wants to be in that situation, as individuals they have fear of not being socially accepted, rejected, and not being in the “safe zone” in school of not being judged. Society has set up expectations for certain type of people of certain age or race. We had become slaves of what other…show more content…
Immigrating to another country is a hard task, start over with anyone there; O’Brien was choosing to go through a few hard weeks to conserve his safety. O’Brien is a young man, indeed, he fears to die during war. O’Brien did not want to go to war overseas, since he did not want to feel like his life was going to end at any moment of the day. When he was at the war, Tim saw many of his colleagues die in the most unexpected moments. He knew any day he would be next. O’Brien was free in those lands; everything stayed in his platoon, but he was thrall of his own thoughts of dying at any
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