Analysis Of Our Story Begins By Tobias Wolff

In Tobias Wolff’s Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories, lies a gem in the rough called “Soldier’s Joy,” which is a short story about a Vietnam War veteran named Hooper who is adapting to life on the base post-war. Hooper is trying to get his life together little by little, but nothing is going back together the way it should in his mind. This was a problem for a lot of Vietnam War veterans post-war because of all the things they saw firsthand and they had no idea how to handle the things they saw on their own. They had no idea how to handle all of the destruction, chaos, and death they saw, so most of them took to their own ways of coping with everything they saw or even did during the war. A lot of the veterans drank, and drank until

Some resorted to hardcore drugs like cocaine, and others became sex addicts with whomever they could have sex with. So what makes a person like this, what pushes them so over the edge that the only things that make them feel better involve them harming themselves? How does one get over this hump in life and find joy in it again? Wolff observes these happenings in his life and addresses them all throughout “Soldier’s Joy,” as to how a soldier finds joy in life again, which Hooper comes to realize his joy comes from being back in the suspense and joy of war. The story “Soldier’s Joy” revolves around Hooper, post-Vietnam War, on his assigned army base. Hooper has a wife and child, but in his mind they do not exist in his life. Yes, they are there, but he feels as though he has failed them, so he leaves them out of his life. Hooper comes to terms with the fact that after the war the army has become his life, which in the beginning of the story he is not completely sure of why that is, but by the end of the story he fully

As Hooper is talking to Porchoff, he lights a cigarette, showing one of his bad habits from the war. As the two are talking, Hooper addresses the fact that Porchoff wants to kill himself and Porchoff takes offense to the situation at hand as he tells Hooper, “Why shouldn’t I shoot myself? Give me a reason,” Hooper responds with, “No. But I’ll give you some advice” (Wolff 68.) The simple sentence stated by Hooper sets the rest of the conversation into motion as the two start talking about what put them into the army in first place. This also brings into play how the army is nothing like what Porchoff thought it would be, none of the brotherhood that his father had with it, no great stories or experiences, no anything. But to Hooper it is exactly the opposite; in his case the army has brought him everything that is good in his life, as he says, “My best time…[was in] Vietnam” (Wolff 70). Yes, there are some things that are better than others, but fighting side by side on the frontlines with those who know him better than anyone else, his brethren, that is Hooper’s true joy in life, but he had not realized it until he says it out loud to Porchoff. As the two are finishing up their conversation, Hooper tries to takes the gun away from Porchoff just