Fear And Soldiers In The Things They Carried, By Tim O Brien

War changes a person from who they used to be because of the danger and risk to life that they must face every day to survive. In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, we hear some of the harrowing stories of being a soldier in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam war was the longest war in American History, killing an estimated 60,000 United States soldiers and nearly 2 million Vietnamese. Tim O’Brien served as a foot soldier on the battlefront in Vietnam and lived to write about his experiences which give Americans an insight to the harsh reality of the Vietnam War. War tests soldier 's ability to cope with the stress, fear, and death that surrounds them. In order to survive, a soldier must adapt to their environment and fight to survive. When …show more content…
This is how war changes someone by bringing out the dark side of them that they didn 't know existed. After Curt Lemon’s unexpected death, his best friend and fellow soldier Rat Kiely lost all control of his morals and sense of right and wrong. His emotions took over and all the built up anger and grief needed to be released in the form of violence. He ruthlessly and sadistically killed an innocent baby buffalo because he needed to free the pain he felt inside. “Rat took careful aim and shot off an ear. He shot it in the hindquarters and in the little hump at its back. He shot it twice in the flanks. It wasn’t to kill; it was to hurt. [...] It was a question of pain.”(Page 75) Sadistic and cruel acts such as this are results of what war does to a person, how their mindset changes from who they used to be into the killer that they are …show more content…
After having been exposed to battle for so long, you start to have a different outlook on life. You start to see a things from a different perspective. “The truths are contradictory. It can be argued that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty. For all of its horror, you can 't help but gape at the awful majesty of combat.”(Page 77) Another reaction to war is soldiers developing an addiction to adrenaline and combat, which lead to poor judgement in the future. O’Brien describes this effect by writing a story about a girl named Mary Anne. Her trip to vietnam started off as a trip to see her boyfriend but after being exposed to war, her motives changed. Soon after her arrival she began exploring the base, learning about equipment, experiencing the culture and mystery of Vietnam. A special forces group referred to as “The Greenies”(Page 97) taught her how to be a soldier and from this point on she was never the