Thing They Carried Essay

Alexandra Berliner Eshoo English 12 11/28/11 Something A Soldier Ignores Death Fatalities are part of e truly persons life. To a normal citizen, last is often followed by gloominess and grief. As portrayed in The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien, a soldier has to switch with the situation lots differently. Death is portrayed in a proscribe light due to the fact that soldiers are greatly fearful of it and that they are forced to be unaffected by finale. In order to cope with each(prenominal) the deaths he witnessed, OBrien uses the retelling of contendfare stories to heal from these traumatic events.Throughout the novel, death is definitely portrayed as being a very negative part of fight. Because it is such a negative thing, death t block offs to initiate fear in soldiers. From the beginning of the novel, death is truly portrayed as being a very negative risk that anyone at war deals with Beyond either this, or at the very center, was the mad fact of terror. I did not wa nt to die. Not ever (44). It is known that death could be the expiry of going to war, and many of these puppylike soldiers do not want to die.Even though many soldiers end up going to war anyway, they are put away fearful of death being a accomplishable outcome for them. All of this fear and anxiety associated with war ultimately leads most people to view death in a negative light. It is definitely something that soldiers want to avoid, and even if they are not killed, death quench has negative affects on them. In addition to death being portrayed in a negative light from the beginning of the novel, the soldiers are forced to be unaffected by death. As a result, it is seen how war changes people in a negative way.Once the war is all over, the negative affects are still present, and OBrien deals with them through retelling the past. It is seen that anyone that set outs involved in war eventually learns to be unaffected by death when one of the soldiers girlfriends comes to visi t. She never leaves because she becomes fully invested in the war She was dangerous. She was ready for the kill (116). When the girlfriend first came to the war site, she was innocent. Now, she has become part of the war and is ready to kill.One of the most obvious ways that she has changed is that now she give the bounce kill people easily and is unaffected by it. The fact that such an innocent woman apprise be changed so drastically by war shows the negative affects of being unaffected by death. It has become part of life for these soldiers, while most people would see death as a alarming thing. Additionally, we see another soldier forced to conform to the guidelines of war in the witnessing of Kiowas death The young soldier was trying hard not to cry (170).This shows that, when first exposed to war, the soldiers are actually tump over when they see another person die. This is a normal controvertion that most people would have yet, the others soldiers research down upon this person. When the young soldier is about to cry, they know that he is new to the experiences, and they just sheer him. The see soldiers do this because they know that every soldier just has to ignore death. It is just an unavoidable part of war. In war, death is dehumanized, and every soldier is forced to ignore it yet, it still has lasting negative affects on the soldiers.OBrien reveals that he deals with the situation through the retelling of war stories. By revealing these stories, it allows OBrien, as well as the listener, to rede how exactly war works By telling stories, you objectify your own experienceYou outgrowth sometimes with an incident that truly happened, like the night in the shit field, and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain (160).This shows that all the bad experiences, including the thousands of deaths observed, are clarified through telling stories. Even if the stories are not totally accurate, rescue any part of the situation to light gives OBrien the closure he needs. It allows him to understand what went on in the war and be able to heal from it. Even though the soldiers are forced not react to death as a civilized human would, it still affects them internally, and the best way for OBrien to deal with the negativity of death is through talking about it.Death is something that every soldier has to deal with on a regular basis. Thousands of people are killed every day at war, and so, the soldiers are forced to ignore the emotions associated with death. They do not have the time to be upset in the midst of protecting our country. As a result, all of the witnessed death affect them internally and stay with them for many years after the war is over. In order to deal with the negative affects, it is seen that OBrien uses war stories as a way of healing. It allows him to understand what he experienced and move past it.