The Man I Killed

In the Man I Killed Tim O’Brien is telling the story of the young Vietnamese soldier that he has killed. He expresses the guilt he feels and the void he has created in his own heart upon this act of violence. He speaks of the man’s physical attributes and creates a story, creating a connection with his boy and the life he has created for him.

In it, it seems as if O’Brien were to know this boy who now lies on the side of the road, dead and motionless with what he explains as a star shaped hole on one of his eyes.  He creates a whole story for him and what his life was, letting his imagination run free and creating even more guilt for himself when he says that the boy might have had a future. In the boy, he finds himself, and in the story he creates for him, he also finds self pity, connecting with the boy and loathing over the impediments of war on life. Making this connection only creates more guilt and in a way all of these details are actually coming from him self conscience and how O’Brien might have perceived his life before the war as well.