Made In Iraq Character Analysis

Through the distress of a single man, Jarrell is able to depict the fears of a lonely soldier in an extremely vulnerable position, and invites us into the heinous reality of war which forces us to question our impressions of soldiers having no fear yet not questioning their bravery. War can produce gruesome situations that can cause even the bravest men to face their fears, but it is how they deal with this fear that is the important part. Ball turret gunners were courageous warriors. They were fully aware of how susceptible to death they were, nevertheless, they would continue to fight time after time. WWII was a dreadful episode in human history that killed millions of people, and its bloodshed is described by the UN Charter as a scourge that “has brought untold sorrow to mankind”. Jarrell had served in the military himself, thus he knew - at least to some extent -

The stressor caused by war is one of the reasons these soldiers to choose to suicide. Some of them could not cope with what they had been through during the war. Kelly (2004) discussed about a former Army sergeant, Matt La Branche, who shared the memories when he was in Iraq War. "He constantly struggles with the image of the Iraqi woman who died in his arms after he had shot her" (Kelly, 2004). According to Buncombe & Duff (2006), "When you go to bed at night you wonder will you be sent home in a flag-draped coffin because a mortar round went off on your sleeping area." another army also shared his experience after the war. These examples showered how the soldier experienced severe anxiety, suffered from a serious depression, and become dependent on alcohol. They keep toughing themselves with negative thought and cannot stand the memories that they are murdered, seeing children killed, families wipe out and even the loss of comrades. Killing and brutality of the war have led to many soldiers feel shame, embarrassment, and guilt.

The rambunctious behavior of the soldier’s triumphant victory is a strong message visually for the viewer. These soldiers struggle to find their identity and once the war ends, the identity they’ve build at war vanishes, (McCutcheon, 2007). As a result, they essentially lose a part of them selves, (McCutcheon, 2007). When they return home, many soldiers struggle with psychological issues that prevent them from resuming their once regular lives, (McCutcheon, 2007). The images of soldiers celebrating at the end of war give the viewer a taste of this problem. This also allows the viewer insight to the deeper issues surrounding an American soldier’s mental stability and mentality. Through this image, along with many others throughout the film, the viewer is able to dig deeper and truly analyze what they are seeing.

“War stories” are shared by people all over the world, describing exhilarating experiences one encompasses during a war. However, these stories have been known for hyperbolizing details of the story, deeming it a “lie.” Tim O’Brien, the author of “How to Tell a True War Story,” examines the complex relationship between war experience and storytelling. The tale is told partly from O’Brien’s role as a soldier, as a reprise of several Vietnam stories, and half of his role as a storyteller, as a discussion on the art of storytelling. O’Brien provides detailed commentary on storytelling and blurs the division between truth and fiction through a series of paradoxical commentaries.

Through the soldiers’ experiences, the narrator shows only the dark side of human nature. Discuss.

For the seventeen Soldiers portrayed in “The Things We Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the physical pain was very minimal weight to carry compared to the emotional scars that they will carry throughout their entire life. This story does an amazing job portraying full human emotion that anyone put into a situation would feel, such as heavy guilt, sadness, anger, lack of motivation, perseverance, horror, and false security. All of these are notorious feelings that every soldier back in history, and now still feel when they are on a mission. “The Things They carried” shows a deep vulnerability of everyday human’s thought process during times of great stress, that before, wasn’t considered by the general public and media when speaking about what it

My reaction to this short story was one of sadness and fear. My husband is a soldier in the U.S. Army, and this short story resonates very personally with me. I hear war stories all time; from my husband, from his friends, and from the other Army wives. O’Brien’s stories and experiences remind me of all the other sad and horrific stories that I have heard. But what is even sadder is that those not

Most authors who write about war stories write vividly; this is the same with Tim O’Brien as he describes the lives of the soldiers by using his own experiences as knowledge. In his short story “The Things They Carried” he skillfully reveals realistic scenes that portray psychological, physical and mental burdens carried by every soldier. He illustrates these burdens by discussing the weights that the soldiers carry, their psychological stress and the mental stress they have to undergo as each of them endure the harshness and ambiguity of the Vietnam War. One question we have to ask ourselves is if the three kinds of burdens carried by the soldier’s are equal in size? “As if in slow motion, frame by frame, the world would take on the old

A big theme and point in Tim O'Brien’s novel is how many situations hurt the soldiers’ lives. From the beginning, O'Brien starts his work by numbering the many things soldiers have to carry; Knives, guns, pictures, and some feelings and trust issues they had with their family before leaving for war. O'Brien tells us and explains how each soldier was hurting, and how it was for them to get use to the war and the environment they were in, as he says; “Jimmy Cross did not want the responsibility of leading these men. He had never wanted it.” (167). In this quote, O'Brien reveals how tough it was for Lieutenant Cross to have this responsibility in the war. O'Brien contemplated over and over again, trying to decide if he wanted to go to war and if it was for him or not. He has seen it as something he couldn’t do. More the less, they saw the war as irrelevant nonsense at times.

These are the stories that need to be told to the American public by the soldiers who experienced them first hand. Sadly these stories only come out in books and novels and are often deemed as “true stories that never happened,” as seen in Tim O’Brien’s work. There is a clear reason for this.

The story focuses on the emotions of the soldiers and describes how they endured extreme emotional torture during their time at war. All of them taken away from their homes and being thrown into a terrorizing unfamiliar area then given a gun and being told to fight most of them being young and having no combat experience. Tim O’Brien explains the amount of emotional stress each man carried “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing-these were intangibles, but intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight” (89). He describes how their fear affected even what supplies they brought with them from the amount of ammunition, to pocket knives, and even food. One of the soldiers in the story, Ted Lavender carried tranquilizers with him because he was scared of the physical pain he might endure. “Depending on numerous factors, such as topography and psychology, the riflemen carried anywhere from 12 to 20 magazines” (82). All the men struggled through

Since the beginning of time, humans have sought after power and control. It is human instinct to desire to be the undisputed champion, but when does it become a problem? Warfare has been practiced throughout civilization as a way to justify power. Though the orders come directly from one man, thousands of men and women pay the ultimate sacrifice. In Randall Jerrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner”, Jarrell is commenting on the brutality of warfare. Not only does Jarrell address the tragedies of war, he also blames politics, war leaders, and the soldier’s acknowledgement of his duties. (Hill 6) With only five lines of text, his poems allows the reader to understand what a soldier can go through. With the use of Jerrell’s poem, The Vietnam War, and Brian Turner’s “Ameriki Jundee”, the truth of combat will be revealed.

The article “Generation Kill” is written by Ewan Wright in 2004 and the author follows a platoon of US Marines in their advance through the Iraq war. Through the text there is given a characterization of the soldiers and how they respond to unaccustomed episodes that war brings.

The individuals in this film also showed symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The diagnosis for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder beings with describing that trauma that one must experience to qualify for the classification of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, one of the aspects of which is threat of death. All of the individuals in this film experienced a daily threat of death while in Afghanistan. Some of the soldiers talk about being unable to forget the events that they had experiences while they were serving. This suggests that these individuals are experiencing recurrent, distressing memories of the traumatic events. Recurrent memories of traumatic events are one of the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. When some of these soldiers were talking about the events that they witnessed there was a look on their faces that made it seem as though they were reliving the events that they were describing as they described them. This could also be a form of an intrusive symptom of PTSD. While none of the soldiers mention having flashbacks while they are speaking it is possible that they are indeed have flashbacks or dissociative reactions. The soldiers in the film do not appear to have any of the symptoms associated with avoidance. All of these soldiers were discussing the experiences that they faced and describing the memories associated with those experiences. There were not avoiding their traumatic memories but discussing them. However a number of the soldiers state in the film that they did not tell their family or friends about instances that they have experienced, which might be seen as avoidance. They especially did not tell their friends and families about the events when they happened. One of the soldiers specifically said that he had difficultly sleeping after coming back from combat, he said that

To sum up, this novel narrates the journey of a soldier throughout the war in Iraq and his mind altering experience. The war represents a major downfall in his life in which he encounters many graphic scenes. Even though John describes his experiences in the war as a