ELA Regents Prep of Session I Part A Essay on Audio of Tim O'Brien's "Ambush"

September 26, 2007
The Effects of Wars
“Ambush” by Tim O’ Brien


Wars can have a tremendous effect on the life of an individual. Tim O’ Brien’s autobiographical speech “Ambush” is an example of literature that describes a person who faces a life of time regret. Throughout this piece of literary work, the main character, who indeed is Tim O’Brien, is involved in a war in which he kills a young soldier. He didn’t really want to kill that young Soldier. This accident has led O’ Brien to feel extremely guilty throughout his life.

“Ambush” is an antiwar story. Tim O’ Brien feels very distracted from the day he had killed someone in a war. He keeps writing stories about wars. Once when Tim was up late at night, trying to fight mosquitoes, he saw a man coming towards him. It was a young soldier. Tim had no idea what was going to happen. To make the man go away, O’ Brien took out his grenade. However, soon the grenade rolls out of his hands and rolls to the soldier. At this point Tim O’ Brien says that, “everything was happening automatically”. As a result of this “accident”, the grenade leads to the death of the soldier.

O’ Brien feels extremely regretful throughout his life. He has a year old daughter named Kathleen. Kathleen had once told her father “you keep writing these war stories, so I guess you must have killed somebody.” She says this because he writes too many war stories. O’ Brien refused to admit the truth and state why he writes war stories. He always said “of course not” and would take her on his lap. Tim O’ Brien writes that those were his “difficult” moments because he felt guilty.

Throughout his lifetime, O’ Brien was haunted by the killing of the soldier. In “Ambush” he describes fantasies of the man he killed being alive. O’ Brien shows this by explaining to the reader that he often sees the soldier coming through the fog when he is reading a newspaper or sitting alone in a room. He imagines the soldier smiling surreptitiously. Tim O’ Brien also says that at that time he had a friend named Kiowa. When Kiowa found out that Tim O’ Brien had killed the young soldier he said, “it was a good kill.”

Tim O’ Brien is an example of an individual who was effected by a war. He continues to write war stories. He seems to never forget what has happened in his past life. Tim O’ Brien feels culpable about killing the young soldier.