Taking a different outlook on the style of O'Brien's writing, I see this theme of coming of age being especially present. Not necessarily the coming of age where one transitions, physically, from youth to adult, but mentally and through the maturity of one's characteristics. I see this especially in the story "On the Rainy River" when he is deciding whether or not he is going to flee to Canada. He was in this constant state of fear. O'Brien states, "It was a moral split. I couldn't make up my mind. I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile." His coming of age was not the idea that he would man up and go to the war, but it was the fact that he was able to make a decision. In all of the stories he has to make decisions, or he has to witness others making decisions. The act alone is a coming of age towards all the soldiers involved. In the story, "The Man I Killed" the title says it all. He made the decision that he was going to kill this man. From the moment he stepped foot on that land, that decision was made.
The second theme in the story that interests me is the theme of loss. Not loss only in terms of death, but in terms of one's true self (maybe ones true self was to go to war). O'Brien had the opportunity to be anything he wanted before the war. Once the draft comes and his name is drawn, that is when he begins to lose who he may truly have been. The same goes for the other soldiers, it plays a psychological effect on a persons way of thinking. It is either go to war or flee to Canada, kill or be killed in war, run or stay. The story "Speaking of Courage" represents this psychological effect well. O'Brien uses lines such as, "How the rain never stopped. How the cold worked into your bones." It affects ones way of thinking during the war as well. Survival instincts are put into play and courage is a matter of whether or not one will keep moving in the coldest of nights.
So the themes of 'coming of age' and 'loss' are the two themes that I believe to play the biggest roles.
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