The Destructiveness Of War In Billy Pilgrim's Life

Actions tested there ethical and moral values. After this point these soldiers have to cope with the cause and effect from their actions. Coping can cause mental illnesses, and addiction but also you can cope with these some things plus more things such as love, and mortality. This is the most important struggle that had to take care of for their survival. But why is this still relevant to today's society? Tim o’brien used many methods while writing this book to help the reader to understand the soldiers experiences and feelings throughout the war. These methods include imagery, repetition, hyperbole, metaphors, allusions, and many

Over the past few decades, the war changed everyone’s perspective. According to NCBI, 61% civilians suffer from psychological disorders caused by wars. Specifically, two books, Night and Persepolis, talks about the author experiences during the war and their struggles. Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, documents his childhood when he was maltreated by the Nazis, and Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, share her experiences during the Iraq-Iran war of how it change her. War changes childhood because of near-death experiences, family departure, and witness horrific acts of violence.

In Tim Obrien’s text, Where have You Gone, Charming Billy?, the fear and turmoil caused by war are explored through the eyes of Private First Class Paul Berlin. Throughout his first day in Vietnam Paul encounters tense and fearful moments, but the experience that most affects him is the death of fellow soldier Billy Boy Watkins, who stepped on a land mine, lost his leg, and proceeded to succumb to his own fear and panic, ultimately dying from a shock induced heart attack. This event deeply affects Paul who feels unprepared for the reality of war. Throughout the text chronicling his first day at war, Paul Tries to conquer his fear but despite small victories he never succeeds in being unafraid.

The psychological effects, the mentality of fighting and killing another human, and the sheer decimation of human values is what makes war atrocious. War is not only fought on the battlefield though. This book also describes the feelings of a soldier fighting his own demons that war has brought on. The battle that the soldier has with himself, is almost if not more damaging than the physical battle of war. He will never forget his experience with battle, no matter how hard he tries the memories of artillery, blood, and death cannot be erased. “I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. People back home will wonder why you can't forget.” (Sledge). This struggle still happens to soldiers today. Sledge’s words of the struggles still captures the effects of warfare that lingers today. The other effects that war has on the men is the instability that surrounds them at every hour of the day. They are either engaged in battle having bullets and artillery fired at them, or waiting for battle just so they can be deposited back in the pressure cooker of survival. “Lying in a foxhole sweating out an enemy artillery or mortar barrage or waiting to dash across open ground under machine-gun or artillery fire defied any concept of time.”

War can have an immense effect on an individual's life. Warfare can create opportunities by ending tyranny or providing people with freedom. On the other hand, war puts innocent lives at risk and causes families to be torn apart. Depending on how greatly a person is affected, individuals choose how to view war; particularly, in My Brother Sam Is Dead, James and Christopher Collier write about Tim’s horrendous experiences during war. Tim’s decision to be neutral is ultimately decided when war inflicts death upon his friends and family; in this case, Ned, his father, and Sam.

Some make it out, others don't, but everyone is forever changed. Their psyches altered, never to fully heal. War is something the average mind can’t handle. Tim O’Brien’s Novel The Things They Carried offers a look into how war affects the minds of all who live through it, revealing that often times the mind begins to work against oneself, something that could greatly encumber survival.

The author effectively makes war more realistic and understandable for those of us who have never fought. One of the best techniques he uses is creating personable characters, who are interesting and relatable. These stories show the actual effects of the war on the soldiers and that they’re real people. The book does not contain all fighting, shows actuality, and is heroless, as compared to other war stories. The author creates attachment to the characters and an emotional and hilarious ride for the reader. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this

War can be a stressful and an intimidating experience that in one way or another ultimately changes one’s life and behavior negatively. In the novel, “Three Day Road”, by Joseph Boyden, he shows readers the destruction of the war in reference to the main characters, Xavier and Elijah. Joseph Boyden effectively illustrates the journey one goes through and the changes they encounter both physically and spiritually during the duration of the war. War changes everyone physically as well as internally and especially Elijah who within himself is pressured to change his identity, develop an unstoppable obsession with killing, and get absorbed by a drug called morphine. Elijah undergoes many changes at a fast rate that quickly transforms into

First, the reader must understand just what makes a good "war story". The protagonist of the novel, Tim O'Brien, gives us his

War changes people and Tim O’ Brien is a great example because in The Things they Carried, the novel observes a struggle to conquer grief and the struggle to deal with death; which shows the human side. The story displays strong sentiment and lets the reader sympathize with the characters, especially Tim O’ Brien. Tim O’ Brien permits the spectators to feel the emotion by writing this fictional story.

They try to build a new life, but memories from the war are still strongly obvious to them. Through the feeling of embarrassment inside the soldier, O’Brien has depicted the post-war effects of the

In war, the characteristics of a soldier, civilian, and the nation as a whole can change drastically due to the nature of war. A person introduced to war is physically and mentally changed because of the traumatic experiences they encounter. Tim O’Brien uses contrasts and contradictions in his novel, The Things They Carried, to reveal how the characters are affected by the war in Vietnam and how their personalities shift through it. The characters who are impacted by the war are exposed to its horrors and are traumatized forever. While in the vicious jungles of Vietnam, the soldiers in war get weary and homesick.

O’Brien was a Vietnam War soldier that experienced the horrors of war first-hand, reliving the moments of the battlefield in the war as well as at home. The “things they carried” were not just their war equipment, but also the emotional and psychological baggage that they had. This emotional baggage weighs in on their conscience and disturbs the peace in their dreams. O’Brien states that “a true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models for proper human behavior”(O’Brien 65). Throughout the book O’Brien puts an effort into exposing the reality of what a “true war story” sounds like. He remarks that any story that makes “you feel uplifted” is a complete falsehood and claims that “you have been made the victim of very old and terrible lie”(O’Brien 65).

In this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.

“You can tell a true war story by the questions you ask. Somebody tells a story, let 's say, and afterward you ask, "Is it true?" and if the answer matters, you 've got your answer” (O’Brien 62). In the book The Things They Carried Tim O’ Brien displays throughout his short stories how much war can change you mentally, emotionally, and your sanity.