“Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy”

Tim O’Brien

Characterization

•Direct Characterization – the writer tells us what the character is like

• Indirect Characterization – the reader puts together clues about what the character is like

• Static Characters – characters that do not change

• Dynamic Characters – characters that change

• Round Characters – characters that are developed fully

• Flat Characters – characters not fully developed

Historical Context

•The social, cultural, and political issues of the time and place in which the story is set

Vietnam: the historical context

• French began military campaigns in Vietnam in the mid 19th century

• 1941 Ho Chi Mihn started a resistance movement

• 1945, Japan took control• French tried to regain control and the

Indochina War broke out• US supported the French

North vs. South Vietnam

• Ho Chi Mihn controlled the North

• Ngo Dihn Diem controlled the South

• Elections held to unify-Diem blocked them

• US supported Diem to resist Communism

WAR

• North Vietnamese attack US ship

• President Johnson authorized troops to Vietnam in 1965 to fight North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and South Vietnamese guerrillas (Viet Cong)

Troops

• 16,000 initial troops

• 500,000 at peak

• At withdrawal in 1973, 57,605 Americans had died

• 303,700 wounded

• Many Vietnamese civilians killed

Guerrilla Warfare

• US soldiers trained for traditional combat

• Viet Cong took advantage of jungle landscape

• Planted traps such as bamboo stakes in the jungle

• Tough to distinguish between civilians and enemy soldiers

Strategy

• US used massive bombing campaigns

• Pacification tactics such as search and destroy missions and free-fire zones

Turning Point

• 1968—NVA and Viet Cong prepared to launch a simultaneous attack against all major cities in South Vietnam

• Occurred on Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, rumored to be truce time

• Tet failed in terms of casualties but succeeded in turning US sentiment against the war

March 1968

• Johnson halted bombing and began peace talks

• Richard Nixon was elected President

• Nixon began reducing troops and turning Vietnam over to Army of the Republic of Vietnam leaders

Tim O’Brien

• Drafted into the US Army right after college• Spent 2 years in Vietnam• After the war, he wrote to cope with his

memories from the war• Often used the character Paul Berlin to tell

the story