| Abstract | The remarkable writing and style of Tim O’Brien have been topics of research and praise since his recognition for his earliest works, including the National Book Award for Fiction for Going After Cacciato. Some of academic discourse centered around his style, some on his conception of truth and verisimilitude, parts on the ethical component of his work, but seldom has there been research on the presence of philosophy in his works. Noted, we are not discounting ethics as philosophy, but we are focusing on another field altogether. This thesis will examine O’Brien’s Vietnam War trilogy, comprised of selected works of If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (1973), Going After Cacciato (1978), and The Things They Carried (1990), and attempt to outline philosophical elements present within them. The elements the thesis proposes as present in the trilogy are chiefly the concept of authenticity, the absurd, and alienation, all of which occur in differing degrees and forms in the selected literature. The philosophical basis for drawing parallels of similarity and concurrence is constituted by predominantly existentialist thinkers and their notions of the three concepts, along with some broader, general information on their notions necessary for understanding. Beyond similarity, the thesis proposes original interpretations of the concepts as they appear in the trilogy, along with their inadvertent or intentional formulations in the texts. |
