Assume for a moment, that the writer, Tim O’Brien, created a fictional main character, also called Tim O’Brien, to inhabit this novel. Why would the real Tim O’Brien do that? What would that accomplish in this? How would that strengthen a book about “trut

I think that the fictional character would become a means to express the author's inner thoughts without being restricted to an autobiographical format. O'Brien is able to use his art, of writing, to tell a story that often defies factual description. The reader can feel the character's experiences through the lens of the creative and the factual.