In both works, the soldiers set aside their morals to overcome the horrors of war such as killing a man. This challenges their emotional endurance and has negative consequences on their mental disposition. Paul Bäumer, the protagonist in All Quiet on the Western Front, is put in a situation where he must suspend his ethics otherwise his supposed enemy, Gérard Duval, will murder him. This is the first time Paul has killed with his own hands, and “every gasp [of the enemy] lays [Paul’s] heart bare” (Remarque 221). He feels instant regret for his actions, and he “would give much if [Duval] would but stay alive” (Remarque 221).
Death is something that occurs often in a war due to the violence and dangerous areas. Everyone takes on the thought of someone dying in different ways, whether they maintained a close relationship with the person or not guilt could become an instant reaction of the persons' death because of a feeling of maybe being responsible for the death that occurred. The thought of maybe being responsible for one of the soldiers that you have spent day night serving with could leave an enormous amount of guilt in one person. When witnessing a death or anything traumatic it is easy to blame someone else or even yourself for the tragic accident. Multiple characters in the book The Things They Carried demonstrated the guilt and responsibility of another
The death of this unacclaimed leader heavily impacted the tone of the events to follow. Piggy was influential in many ways, but was highly underappreciated by many. His death in Chapter 11 greatly affected Ralph’s emotions. “And in the middle of them . with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (202).
Besides, those memory from the pass can affect his behavior. “I thought probably I’d get pneumonia and die. I started picturing millions of jerks coming to my funeral and all” (171). The memory from the pass makes him starts to worry about himself. Second, he has negative attitude toward the world around him.
Gene is forced to watch as Phineas is buried but he could not do so much as cry. Gene paid the ultimate price for his crime—he had killed himself alongside his now lifeless rival, roommate, and best
Aeschylus once claimed “And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our own will, comes wisdom by the awful grace of god.” Aeschylus shows that pain has incredible effects on the being. Pain plagues and diminishes the mind, body and heart, corrupting the soul itself. In Erich Maria Remarque 's All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, along with his fellow soldiers, experience these pains almost constantly throughout the story. Due to the traumatizing situations the men are put into during war, they are incapable of readjusting to humanity outside of the battlegrounds.
By far he has the most cumbersome burden to carry of any of the characters in the book, maybe because of how his life was during the war. He dealt with bone-chilling cold, the stench of a field filled with excrement, and the constant mortar shelling his company took on (as illustrated in the chapter “speaking of Courage.”) He believed the real courage
Jimmy was “purely invented, like Martha, and like Kiowa or Mitchell Sanders and all the others (The Textual “Truth” behind Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried).” These characters, and the stories that they took part in symbolize the negative feelings and experiences that O’Brien came across in Vietnam. The death of his fellow soldiers and loneliness ate him up until he had to write to get them off his
Distrust found in Odysseus also led him to make regrettable decisions. After testing his father, Odysseus sees him in immense sorrow that breaks his heart. If he had hugged him, the reunion would’ve been much more optimistic; Odysseus’ choice to test him brought a dark cloud on the meeting. Both Odysseus and his crew have issues with trust and so have all mankind since the beginning of time to today. Never forget that there’s always someone out there.
Thus, anger had led him to a horrible mistake that he would later regret. Again, the narrator states,”Throwing the links around about his waist, it was but a few seconds to secure it.” Montresor chains Fortunato because he was angry at him for hurting people. He was an angry man with many vengefulness ideas. Therefore, Montresor’s anger led him to a bad mistake.
"When a man died, there had to be blame. Jimmy Cross understood this. You could blame the war… A moment of carelessness or bad judgment or plain stupidity carried consequences that lasted forever" (115). In both the novel and the video, it was shown that the soldiers would quickly take blame for the actions in battle.
Kemmerich’s was one of Paul’s close friends to die first, and it is here we can see how loss is portrayed during this scene. The loss of Kemmerich life was not quick or painless, Paul’s friend suffered throughout this time, and Paul was their watched his friend die. Paul faced the truth about war after his friend’s death. The truth that Paul had discovered is that the loss of life is something that he, and all of his friends might not be able to escape. I believe that Paul gave up on living after the death of Kat, that was his last friend that was still alive and he was very close to him.
In the story ‘The things they carried’ written by Tim O’Brien, the soldiers of Alpha Company are tormented by the guilt, trauma, confusion. With the only thing they can hold on to is hope. In both before and after the Vietnam war. Some of the characters work through the pain and put the events behind them, only to resurface at times while for others it becomes all too much.
The anecdote was a real life story about how he was in war. He said it was horrific and terrifying. Which made the point that donald would not do well because of him not listening to veterans. These personal stories give a personal connection to the reader giving them a feeling of personal disbelief.
O' Brien revisits the place in which Kiowa died in an attempt to gain conciliation between him (emotions) and the Vietnam (war). In the chapter O'Brien states that he "looked for signs of forgiveness or personal grace" within the field therefore O'Brien seemed to want to make amends with his emotions towards the war by revisiting Vietnam (181). However he soon discovers that he can't blame Vietnam for who he has become as Vietnam "was at peace" (181). O'Brien has a dramatic change in character as he realizes he is now seen as some sort of civilian by his fellow platoon and no longer one of them. Throughout the chapter O'Brien seeks revenge from Jorgenson as he in some way blames him from his alienation from his platoon.