Dehumanization In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Wars change people. Soldiers go out to kill, not even knowing the identity of the man whose life they are about to take. . All they know is that the other soldier is the enemy. Just another person to kill. In World War 2 with POW camps and concentration camps, the Nazis treated anybody that was not a Nazi as dirt or trash, not even as a human. This treatment has been passed down in some form to every single war afterwards. However, the people doing this were not born into dehumanizing monsters. The war they entered changed them. Dehumanization can be seen in some of the characters in Tim O'Brien's book “The Things They Carried”. Characters such as Azar, Mary Anne, Dave Jenson and Rat Kiely all arrived to Vietnam as normal humans, but left as people who dehumanized the enemy to the point that disgusted other fellow

When she arrives, she is the “sweetheart” of the group. She has a very “bubbly personality”, as Tim O'Brien describes. She even shows her innocence in how she speaks. “They’re human beings, aren't they? Like everybody else?” (O’Brien 92). She doesn't talk about killing or shooting, she just wants to spend time with her boyfriend, Mark. However, that innocence doesn't last long. As she spends more time in the war, she begins to go out on ambushes with the Special forces group. She becomes so different, that she breaks her lover's heart. Last anybody hears of her, she is “Part of the land. She [is] wearing her culottes, her pink sweater, and a necklace of human tongues. She [is] dangerous. She [is] ready for the kill.” (O’Brian 110). O’Brien wants us to see her like all the soldiers do, scared of her change. She doesn't care about anything but going out on dangerous missions and killing Vietcong. There is no risk for her, she doesn't care. As proved by the author, Mary Anne has all of her