The Character Private First Class Paul Berlin (Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?) - Tim O'Brien

In the short story names "Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?" by Tim O'Brien, it revolves around the main character who is Private First Class Paul Berlin. The story takes place during the Vietnam War. It is his first day at war, and the problem involves Paul having an extremely rough time fighting anxiety and fear in the war and Billy's death from a heart attack and entering the war because of the society. His character does not change or develop very much, but throughout the story, Paul is considers thoughtful and hopeful.

First, Paul is thoughtful because he spends a lot of time going over events in his head. After he has an amount of time thinking about it, he learns that “fear came in many degrees and types and peculiar categories…” (133) Any reader would think this is silly, but this direct quote helps reader to recognize Paul's changes. How he always keeps Billy's death, arriving to the coastline, and going back home thoughts revolves in his mind. Mentioning of fear, he witnesses the death of Billy, but he always keeps it quite at first and make it like nothing had happen. Until later, when Toby starts to mention that story again, Paul was not afraid anymore, he tries to shake it off and giggle as much as he can. So, if he continues to think like that, he would be considering what mistakes he can limits during the war, to help him survive, and that is how it makes Private First Class Paul Berlin so hopeful.

Paul is hopeful because his desire is to reunite with war buddies later and meeting family again indicates a belief that he will survive. “They would have their rear guarded by three thousand miles of ocean, and they would swim and dive in to the breakers and hunt crayfish and smell salt, and they would be safe.” (132) Paul went from staying quiet and being afraid to laughing and trying to hide his fear. This act of him may be a little bit regress, but he is brave enough to make noise in wars and not afraid of being dead anymore. Also, he tries to cope his depression from seeing Billy's death by laughing, or actually giggling. Later, where he describes "a funny war story that he would tell to his father, how Billy Boy Watkins was scared to death; a good joke." (138) From that, the readers can tell that even though he witnesses someone death during the war, but he is still giggling and thinking what would he do when he first come home to the States.

The two traits, thoughtful and hopeful, represented Private First Class Paul Berlin over time. Even though the writer uses direct characterization to describe the characters, the story is still being tells in the third person limited point of view. Therefore, after a period of time, the readers can see that he has some good changes, from quiet to loud, but still being an introverted person. Again, would there not be any person who is going to wars would not be afraid after witnessing someone from their team dying because of a silly bloody heart attack?