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The Loss Of Humanity In The Things They Carried

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The loss of humanity is a global issue in The Things They Carried. Loss of humanity is when a person loses their emotions and sees people as objects. People who lose their humanity dont care if humans die and think of death as a normal thing. Mary Anne, Dave Jensen, and Rat Kiley are all characters who lost their humanity due to the effects of the vietnam war. Mary Anne lost her humanity and became a completely different person who shows no emotion. Dave Jensen does not take death seriously and Rat Kiley had a mental breakdown which made him go crazy. Mary Anne’s loss of humanity and innocence is a global issue in the chapter The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. Mary Anne starts off as a young naive girl that came straight out of school. She …show more content…

Dave Jensen jokes about the death of Curt Lemon and doesn't take his death seriously. “ The gore was horrible, and stays with me. But what wakes me up 20 years later is Dave Jensen singing “Lemon tree” as we threw down the parts” (O’brien 79). This quote conveys how the action of Dave Jensen is inhumane, and how it's an example of the global issue of loss of humanity. Dave Jensen singing about his friend who just died in front of him and showing no emotion at all is a loss of humanity that has occurred due to the vietnam war.The quote shows an example of irony because what wakes up O’brien 20 years later isn't the gore of Curt Lemons death, it is Jensen singing about Lemons death. This shows how dark and inhumane it is that he is singing. Dave Jensen lost his humanity in …show more content…

Rat Kiley starts to lose his mind in this chapter of the book. In this chapter he believes that all the insects in the jungle were out to get him. “You and me. Everybody. Meat for the bugs. The next morning he shot himself”(O'brien 212). This quote portrays Rat Kiley's loss of humanity; he is going crazy. Rat Kiley was becoming mentally ill; he believed bugs wanted to kill him and that caused him to shoot himself in the foot. Rat Kiley lost the rationality of a normal person due to the stress and experience of the Vietnam war. In the chapter Rat Kiley experiences internal conflict. He experienced too much gore being a medic that he started to go crazy. Rat Kiley just sank inside himself and wouldn’t talk to anyone and then he would randomly start talking about bugs. He said they were the worst thing in Vietnam and that they were out to get him. He would also say his name all night long and in the day he would picture in his head how people would look dead. Rat Kiley chooses to shoot himself so he can get out of Vietnam. Rat Kiley lost his humanity in Vietnam and he had an internal

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