Azar And Dobbins In The Things They Carried

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In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien we are introduced to the characters Azar and Henry Dobbins. These characters have many differences, especially in personality traits. O’ Brien didn’t necessarily include them in the text to show us some big secret that we didn’t notice, but for the purpose of this report, he did. The characters Azar and Henry Dobbins can be seen as representations of the different ways a person might react during a war or some other traumatic experience. Azar is a character who could be seen as the cruel, unforgiving, and truly animalistic side of the population as a race. During the war, many things happen to O’Brien including almost dying of shock after getting shot in the butt. The medic at the time was a boy named …show more content…

Dobbins is the person who cares and who tries to keep his head on his shoulders even though it’s hard, while Azar uses mockery and disrespect to stay calm, “That night, after we'd marched away from the smoking village, Azar mocked the girl's dancing. He did funny jumps and spins. He put the palms of his hands against his ears and danced sideways for a while, and then backwards, and then did an erotic thing with his hips,” (86). Azar did this dance because he didn’t understand, he mocked a girl who danced for her dead relatives because he didn’t understand. Sadly, he’s not the only one who uses mockery to make himself understand, to make himself feel better about a situation, a lot of people do this as well. Dobbins appreciated the girl’s dance enough to stand up for her and threaten Azar, “Dobbins, who moved gracefully for such a big man, took Azar from behind and lifted him up high and carried him over to a deep well and asked if he wanted to be dumped in. Azar said no. ‘All right, then,’ Henry Dobbins said, ‘dance right.’” (86). Dobbins is compassionate enough to understand grieving, but this doesn’t make him a pacifist he’s also stressed about this war, but instead of letting the idiocy of a comrade get to him, he keeps his temper in check and threatens the guy instead. Dealing with a stressful is challenging but possible in any way you can. Dobbins and Azar are representations of the different ways people can deal with stress and O’Brien demonstrates this