Why The Challenges At War In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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).

Paul experiences this deep sorrow and depression because he feels that he has been completely robbed of his sentiment. Furthermore, Paul feels that because of war’s ability to manipulate his feelings into becoming almost static, he has no choice but to have self control and bottle up his emotions. This emphasizes the fact that war causes pain by twisting a soldiers emotions so they fall into a deep despair and begin to crumble, until eventually they are left with nothing but a skeleton of what they once were. Moreover, In the same conversation with his mother, Paul wishes to be taken back in time so he can escape the anguish he currently feels: “Ah! Mother, Mother!

Tim imagined how much of a great life or how he may have lived his life up until the day that he was killed by Tim O’Brien. Tim felt both the responsibility and guilt of the person that he killed while saving his own life in the process. Seeing a body as it is lying down in front of you nearly dying and there is not a chance of saving them could leave a scaring memory that would never go away all due to the fact that it happened right in front of your eyes and mostly because of you. Tim may have tried to forget or not think of what had happened but the death of someone usually never goes away and is somehow always a lingering memory that could not be

In Erich Remarque’s tragic novel, All Quiet On The Western Front, he depicts the hardships war has on an individual, especially the younger generation. From these hardships, the audience understands why the individual is not able to find a way to reconnect with his past life. Paul’s war experience destroys his empathy, as well as his connection to others and the society that he once was a part of. The impact of the war stripped Paul of his humane connections between him and his society, and in the end a naive teen had to endure bloodshed. Paul and his comrades had no idea what the war would do to them and sadly learned that the war was more a misfortune than an honor.

A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo shows the hard work and difficult tasks the men had to go through to prove themselves and protect their country. The war will change the men’s attitudes and the way they do everything. Men made sacrifices in the Vietnam War most people would never make in a lifetime, they will not just sacrifice but push themselves physically harder than most any other men. The men will also emotionally change from constantly watching other men die, or killing other men. The mens first kill was always the hardest for them, mentally they had so many thoughts of the other mans close ones back home and what they would go through and how it would be all their fault.

One of the main reasons O’Brien, a Vietnam veteran, wrote this novel, was “to communicate his traumas incommunicability (Hope College/WTS Journal List)” to the outside world in a way that verbalizing never could. The war left many soldiers so damaged that they failed at communicating feelings of guilt and trauma to others. The book shows this several times and it is one of the largest ways in which the Vietnam War mentally affected those closest to it. In the section titled, “Speaking of Courage”, Norman Bowker, a Vietnam veteran who fought with O’Brien, drives around a lake thinking of the war. He is unable to explain his war experiences to people who will listen.

He went on jerking with flames on his chest until another soldier shot him again. Then he stopped jerking. ”(208). Tim would expect Sam to die by the British, a heroism, brave, courage filled death on the battlefield, but the irony is that in reality he dies a dishonorable death by his own side just like his father. Tim was very upset since Sam, who was innocent, was accused of stealing his own cattle; the generals did not believe Tim’s many proclaims of the truth, war just isn’t fair.

The crew of thugs had been begging for a violent death like that: shot down, no mercy “(Patterson 193) meaning that in one sense Alex agrees with Taylor that they had it coming. Then almost immediately after Alex contradicts himself by thinking “ In my book and the blind eyes of justice, the fact that a man had it coming doesn’t make killing him right “ (Patterson 194). This shows Alex’s true opinion in that he believes that killing a man who was clueless doesn’t make it right. It also shows he thinks everyone is innocent until proven guilty just like most cops are caught not and that he believes only courts can issue punishment not some group of vigilante

The story was told by an unknown person who was never stated, the person committed murder and was talking about his sanity that went along with it, and the story took place in 1843. The author never states were the story takes place in, the narrator murdered the old man because of his eyes because he states they were like a vultures, the narrator states that he loved the old man although he didn’t like his eyes and he wanted them out. The story creates suspense when the narrator talks about he adored the old man but he didn’t like his eyes so he took them out. According to the Narrator he states about his love for the old man but the reason he murdered him was because his haunting look in his eyes, “I loved the old man, he never wronged me, he never gave me an insult, for his gold I had no desire, I think it was his eye yes his eye he had an eye of a vulture, a pale blue eye with a film over it whenever it feel upon me my blood ran cold, I made my mind to take the life of the old man.” In the quotation it states how he had problems with his inner vison.

How could a person who killed another person be a tragic hero? a Tragic hero is someone who learns from their own mistakes, or someone who undergoes great suffering. Macbeth feels no remorse for his killings which makes the situation worse. I do not believe that Macbeth is a tragic hero because he contributes to people's killings and he does not feel sorry for his actions.

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.