Tim O'Brien, author of many war novels and short stories such as The Things They Carried, is a worldly man whose many influences include his love of learning, his special bond with his family, and his experiences during the Vietnam War. Tim's unique writing style, known as verisimilitude or blending of fiction and nonfiction, lends itself to stories that are almost autobiographical in nature, however Tim makes changes to make the writing more interesting. Tim uses the apt character name of Tim O'Brien to express the connections between himself and his eponymous character. Over the course of the many short stories in The Things They Carried O'Brien directly and indirectly compares many important aspects of his life such as his childhood and family life, his military experiences and his love of education with those of his character Tim O '. 'Brien.Tim O'Brien lived a happy life with his family growing up in Worthington, Minnesota, attended Macalester College in nearby St. Paul's Minnesota and received a full scholarship to earn a degree from Harvard, and was living his dreams. Until the day he received his draft notice in the mail, O'Brien had been drafted into the Vietnam War and just like the character Tim in O'Brien's book The Things They Carried and O'Brien had been stripped of his dreams and his innocence. Through the experiences of the character Tim, O'Brien represents his own experiences and feelings regarding the Vietnam War and other aspects of his life. In this way O'Brien's art imitates his life as he writes about things that actually happened to him or those around him. The style in which Tim writes is known as Verisimilitude or fiction rooted in reality, this style of writing allows O'Brien to connect directly......middle of paper......author, veteran TimO'Brien "]. PBS MacNeil / Lehrer Productions, April 28, 2010. Web. February 8, 2014. Farrell, Susan. Hacht, Anne Marie. "Literary Themes for Students: War and Peace." Gale VirtualReference Library, Gale Cengage Learning, February 6, 2014 Moncevic, Mirela. "Not Just a Vietnam Author: July, July." Diary July 2002: 1-3. Gale Biography in Context. 6 January 2014. O'Brien, Tim: for Tim O'Brien, the war of Vietnam has remained a melting pot in his fiction, but the power of imagination and memory, and “our elusive inner worlds,” also loom large.” The Writer July 2010: 16. Gale Biography In Context. 2014.