War In O Brien's The Things They Carried

War has and always will be the most powerful and prevalent happening. War has transformed and molded the world into what it is today. It can flip a country’s state in such a short amount of time whether it is in a positive or negative way. Also, the way people are affected personally, mentally, and physically change when war is present in any time of their life. Soldiers are some of the bravest men and women, they sacrifice their lives for the protection and stability of their country. A key component to the success of a military unit is teamwork. Fellow soldiers create bonds that will last for eternity. The following will reveal war as depicted in O’Brien’s, “The Things They Carried”, O’Connor’s, “Guests of the Nation”, Hardy’s, The Man He

Some people feel guilty forever from past experiences and it is very hard to live with. It has a negative connotation and affects how things are perceived. When a person feels guilty they look back on the situation and wish they could change what they did. In Hardy’s The Man He Killed, guilt is present through the entire poem. He is looking back on a scenario: “Had he and I but met by some old ancient inn, we should have sat us down to wet right many a nipperkin”(Hardy 545). He starts off the poem by asking himself if he did something differently the outcome would have been better. The narrator says that if he had met him near a tavern or inn that the men would have had drinks and a good time. He looks back on this and regrets what the situation held before him. He feels guilty that they are face to face as enemies and not friends. Hardy shows guilt from the start and it expands as the poem goes on. In the third stanza of the poem the narrator stutters as he speaks: “I shot him dead because- because he was my foe. Just so: my foe of course he was; that’s clear enough; although” (Hardy 545). The tone the narrator speaks in shows that he feels guilty. He is struggling to say the words and is very short with what he says. He is struggling to say why he killed him. He stumbles and mutters his words to make himself believe that this man was indeed just his foe nothing else. He was just his foe that was all the man wanted to see him as. At the end of this stanza he ends it abruptly because he doesn’t know what else to say. There is no reasoning for him to do this other than that he was his foe. The narrator then tries to connect with the soldier and think about what he was like. He imagined the man to be just like him. Soldiers are so similar even when they are on opposite sides. They both probably enlisted in the army for financial purposes. It’s a shame to have to kill someone who is trying to