Even More Personal

Similarily to The Sun Also Rises, Tim O' Brien uses first person point of view. However, the way he uses it is a whole world different than the way Ernest Hemingway uses it. In the Things they carried, O' Brien is the acutal character taking place in the story. His name is used when others refer to him and this makes the story feel even more personal. Since O 'Brien was actually in the war and witnessed these things himself, it gives the reader a sense of ethos. The reader knows, as I did, that O' Brien means everything he says with all sincerity. However, why would this book be in fiction? While it has the qualites of a fiction book, it also has the qualities of a documentary. So is it true that the central character is in face O' Brien?

Who's story?

This first chapter of The Sun Also Rises begins describing the life of Robert Cohn who is an American living in Paris. However, this story is told in the First Person point of view. Because of this, I am thinking that this story will focus mainly around two characters who are friends. The character telling the story is named Jake Barnes, and he is the friend of Cohn. However, I am not certain that they are too great of friends becuase Jake only describes themselves as tennis friends. This gives the impression that while Jake is fond of Robert Cohn, he does no sincerely want to be his best friend. This can be found at the end of the second paragraph on page 13 when Jake describes Robert's two friends. Based on reading the summary of the book, I am thinking that the story will focus on their travels together through Europe. However, this chapter does not talk much about any other third parties other than Frances who is Cohn's wife who wants to marry Cohn.