That’s war. And that’s O’Brien’s (and many others) attitude towards it. More evidence of his objective tone is that O’Brien tells us exactly what the men carry without emotion or bias. Passionate adjectives lack, while we are almost given a grocery list of the things the group of soldiers carry. However, we do get some insight into what the characters could be feeling from O’Brien in a phrase that could have a double meaning: “They carried their own lives.
This chapter “The Ghost Soldiers”, showed us how Tim O’Brien and the other soldiers were dealing with the war both physically and psychologically. It also shows us how the Tim O'Brien behaved and felt when he was shot, wounded and had a bacteria infection on his butt and how the war changed the way he thought, and viewed the other soldiers around him. This chapter also contain a lot of psychological lens. From the way Tim O’Brien felt when he was shot and separated from his unit to a new unit to when he wanted revenge on Bobby Jorgenson for almost “killing” him.
At the beginning of the book, O’Brien explains his thoughts on how the war was misguidedly conceived and inadequately justified (18). O’Brien didn’t believe that the war was morally right because it resulted in people dying, thus conveying to the reader that it was in fact evil. He insinuates the idea that he didn’t want to observe the war, let alone join it. O’Brien didn’t want to kill the people because he hated them, but he was scared for his life (98). O’Brien knew the war was evil, but he had to undergo these situations to fulfill his duties as a soldier.
Although the soldier he killed was an enemy soldier, instead of vilifying him he was able to humanize the man. O’Brien was able to describe the physical appearance of the soldier and imagine her life before war. The author was able to portray an emotional connection and made the line between friend and enemy almost vanish. This was able to reveal the natural beauty of shared humanity even in the context of war’s horror. O’Brien is able to find the beauty in the midst of this tragic and horrible event.
In the short story, “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien focuses on this to show that everyone fighting in a war has a story. He spends the story describing the man he killed and searching for justification of his actions. He carries around guilt with him because of it, and his fellow soldiers try to help him justify and come to terms with his action by saying things like, “You want to trade places with him? Turn it all upside down= you want that? I mean, be honest,” (126) and “Tim, it’s a war.
In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien expresses to the reader why the men went to the war and continued to fight it. In the first chapter, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien states “It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather they were too frightened to be cowards.” The soldiers went to war not because they were courageous and ready to fight, but because they felt the need to go. They were afraid and coped with their lack of courage by telling stories (to themselves or aloud) and applied humor to the situations they encountered.
I did not kill him. But I was present, you see, and my presence was guilt enough” (O’Brien 120). We also see O’Brien directly directing the reader in “The Things They Carried”. In short story “The Things They Carried” O’Brien says, “A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing things men have always
O’Brien is clearly emphasizing the true culture of war. He does this to illustrate the development of a soldier’s mind from when they first apply to the military to after they do (or don’t) survive and come back
O’Brien also states all of the soldiers belonging and the importance they are to the me. In the beginning of the book, many men did not want to get drafted in the war. So some would go off to Canada and stay at Tip Top Lodge. After a few days when the drafting started some of the men would come back to the USA to get drafted into Vietnam War. One of the men stayed at the Lodge with Elroy Berdahl.
The everyday life in the forests of Vietnam are always a battle, from village to village the Alpha Company lived and committed atrocities with the power of warfare. Although O’Brien seems to dislike the forms of force used against the Vietnamese he is aware that any Vietnamese in sight becomes an enemy. Despite that he is scarred with everything he lives as a soldier from shooting someone with an M-16 to his own unit members thrown into pieces by a grenade. War life like it is presented by O’Brien is not like any kind of life: from the successful ambushes, to losing half of the unit, or not knowing who would or wouldn't come back became a fear that because they were soldiers they were forced to cover. And many times they covered it through showing their “masculinity” by taking advantage of woman from the villages taking them by force or from canteens.
Firstly, both of the authors’ stories end with the protagonists surviving the war, but making them feel regretful and unworthy of living. O’Brien survives after being a soldier during the
At first Mr. O’ Brien wants to flee to Canada even though he knows that he won’t be able to see his family again or that he won’t be able to come back to the states. However, when he is only twenty yards away from the border, he can’t risk the embarrassment from his hometown and the whole universe, so he goes to the war. During the war, Mr. O’ Brien figures out that the only reason that any of his fellow soldiers are at the war was so their prestige wouldn’t go down. He goes so far as to say, “Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to… They died so as not to die of embarrassment.
O’brien explains that soldiers are not brave, but embarrassed not be. He also explains that war isn’t honorable or just, it's gruesome and scary. O’brien talks about how dying in war isn't glorious, he states “You know you're about to die. And it's not a movie and you aren't a hero and all you can do is whimper and wait”(22). This again adds to idea that war isn't what it's portrayed to be, but a scary and realistic death.
The environment that surrounds one will have a big affect on him or her; in a good environment, people will gradually improve, but in a harsh environment, people will be influenced negatively. O’Brien introduce the reality of the soldiers in the Vietnam War and brings to life the setting of the entire novel. The soldiers were primarily teenagers and young men in their early twenties who had not yet had the chance to experience life. O’ Brien states, “war is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love, War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery.
He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.
