The Things They Carried - Essay Example

Your full full July 13, The Things They Carried Before going to explain a concept related to the selected novel, The Things They Carried, let us get a better understanding of what this novel actually consists of. The Things They Carried tells about the feelings, motions, and experiences of the author, Tim O’Brien, regarding the Vietnam War. The novel consists of a collection of experiences presented in the form of stories by the author. The stories are mainly about the trained personnel of the Alpha Company and cover the way they lived in Vietnam during war, as well as the way they kept their emotions and links intact after the distressed end to the war. All characters of the novel are perfectly integrated in the stories, because of which the readers feel attached to them when reading the stories. Through this novel, OBrien has perfectly shown his emotions of fear, love, guilt, and anger that he underwent before, during, and after the Vietnam War. Although there are many underlying concepts in the novel, the one I have selected for review is “friendship” because it really helped the soldiers in keeping their heart and mind alive in the deadly war. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, friendship means “a friendly feeling or attitude: kindness or help given to someone” (Mariam-Webster). Having seen this definition, it becomes evident that friendship would have definitely played a key role in making soldiers of the Alpha Company fight their war with mutual support and understanding. In this paper, we will discuss the way life in the Vietnam War, as described by Tim O’Brien, altered, warped, mutated, changed or reaffirmed the commonly-held/historically based definition of the selected concept. Thus, friendship is a bond that assists people in survival and coping with the challenges and aftermath of difficult situations. Friendship has been discussed as one of the main concepts in the novel. It has been shown as a useful tool that helped the soldiers of the Alpha Company in making the most out of the battle. It not only helped them in survival in difficult conditions but also played an invaluable role in keeping the soldiers motivated and passionate for keeping their company alive in the war. It also helped the army in releasing their feelings of boredom that come naturally in long wars where war occurs in patches and most of the time is spent on marching and planning. Kiowa, for example, has been shown in the novel as a person who teaches dance to the soldiers in the days of boredom to keep their mind and body alive (OBrien, 39). Another positive thing that happened among the soldiers due to friendship was that they started developing trust in each other. Trust is one of the most influencing pillars of a strong friendship. Soldiers in the Vietnam War revealed that through trust-based friendship and a high level of faith in each other, difficult situations can be overcome. For example, through the incident that occurred between Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen, the aspect of trust and its strength becomes apparent. Both of them came to an agreement that one would kill the other if one of them gets seriously injured during the war in order to relieve the wounded from the painful condition. The situation occurs when Strunk is injured by a mortar round. At that time, Jensen kneeled to fulfill the agreement, but Strunk begged him to keep him alive. Therefore, Jensen left him and helped him to shift in a helicopter. However, Strunk could not survive due to the deadly injury. Jensen, after hearing the news of the death of his friend, feels relieved instead of becoming distressed. Although it was Strunk, who waved off the pact, the liability also occurred on part of Jensen as they had made an agreement. Friendship made them to wave off the pact and wait for the fate to decide their future. Jensen, the partner of Strunk in the pact, could not take the life of his friend by himself although he was Strunk who begged for life. Nevertheless, he felt relieved to hear the news of death of his friend because he knew that death would have been better for his friend than a life full of misery and pain. This also shows that he knew what was right and wrong in honoring the pact. Although he left Strunk alive on demand of Strunk, he knew that he had done wrong considering the terms of the pact. This was also the reason for Jensen to feel relieved upon the death of his friend. The friendship that developed between the soldiers of the Alpha Company during the war became the only source of support for the soldiers after the war, when they could talk to no one about the war instead of discussing the incidents with each other. Friendship also became the source of mental relief for the soldiers as they could share with their friends the negative memories of the war in order to relieve their pain and sorrow. Without friendship, it would have been very difficult for the soldiers to pass through the end of war phase easily. Many of them would have become depressed forever and many would have become exhausted mentally and physically forever in their life. The thesis statement that friendship is a bond that assists people in survival and coping with the challenges and aftermath of difficult situations seems true after reading the story in relation to the concept of friendship. Although the Vietnam War left a very negative impact on the army and people of the United States, one positive thing that, according to O’Brien, occurred even in those conditions was the development of the feelings of friendship between the soldiers that helped them to survive in those difficult days when they came back to their country. Both the society and the troops wanted to forget the climax of the war. It became very difficult for the soldiers to keep themselves strong internally because of what had happened with their army in the recent past. In those difficult circumstances, friendship kept their feelings and emotions alive and helped them to forget the negative aspects and memories of the war. . Works Cited Mariam-Wenster. “Friendship.” mariam-webster.com, n.d. Web. 13 Jul. 2015. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/friendship. O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. wordpress.com, n.d. Web. 13 Jul. 2015. Read More