Is The Theme Of If I Die In A Combat Zone By Tim O Brien

Most people never want to experience a war, it is hell. Many have said that when a man goes to war he never comes back the same. As if a part of his soul is forever in the field. Some may even suggest war brakes the fragile mind of a man. Throughout the two novels by Tim O'Brien he address this dark change. The author even revels the changes that he experienced in his war journey. In the books The Things They Carried and If I Die In A Combat Zone Tim O'Brien clearly shows that war changes men; he shows this through their actions before, during, and after the war. When Men show up to war many have little to no understanding to what war is like. In the Vietnam war not only men but boys went to war. Most had to go because they were drafted.

It seems that the men have thrown their civility away. Instead of respecting and help an elderly man whom is blind the men throw a milk carton at him; “Milk sprayed into the old man’s cataracts.” (O’Brien, If I Die 100). After the men performed this cruild act on an innocent old man they did not help him as he stumbled, almost falling into the well. The Alph company is not only rude but show sheer acts of stupid as well. On pages 25 and 26 O’Braine of If I die He points out that men will just nonchalantly throw grenades. Their as even one account when a guy tossed a grenade it's a “tree and bounced right back at him.(O’Brien, If I Die 26). Even in the book the things things they carried the men are still carrying out these horrible acts that seemed to lack common sense and a purpose. On page 74-75 of The Things They Carried Curt Lemon had just died, so Rat Kiley was upset so his shot a baby water buffalo, once the baby animal was dead its body was dropped down a well. The men of Alpha company also have little to no respect for the dead. “They kicked corpses. They cut off thumbs” says Tim they men would Also “burn anything.” (O’Brien, The Things They Carried 14). The biggest change this war seems for the men Of Alpha Company is one solemn event The Pinkville

“on March 16, 1968. More than 500 people were slaughtered” (“My Lai Massacre”). These 500 lives that were taken brutal where not just men but women and children. If not killing unarmed people was not enough, “the soldiers slaughtered countless livestock, raped an unknown number of women, and burned the village to the ground.” (“My Lai Massacre”). When the men that committed this crime were not men but more so resumbled animals. In field the men were not politically correct because they were no longer citizens, liberals or even pastifits but animals. They were men fighting for their lives using their basic