Warrior Ethos Analysis

The fear of killing and being killed in battle is no easy thing to contemplate or to inspire. Inspiring soldiers to participate earnestly in battle is crucial to winning wars. Approaches to accomplish this have been studied and tried by military leaders for millennia. George S. Patton attempted this very thing in his speech to the Third Army. Patton delivered a profane and vulgar speech to untried soldiers who have yet to see combat. Patton is able to inspire his soldiers by using his reputation while dismantling his authority, using obscene humor, and appealing to their sense of honor and courage.

O’Brien has struggled with coping with horrific war memories like fellow member deaths, poor conditions, and being forced to fight a war that he doesn’t believe in fighting. He is still reflective of certain actions that he had taken that he wishes he could have done different for the better.

(O’Brien 152). The reader is constantly second guessing themselves. This experience allows one to relate to the feeling of the soldiers, one of constant wondering, “Is this alright?” and/or “What am I fighting for?” Thus, the soldiers experiencing the paradoxical nature of war in this story is mirrored and experienced by the

The new soldiers’ resistance was usually followed by an attempt to flee which brought shame and embarrassment to both the new soldiers and their families. Subsequent to the attempt to flee came a final adoption to the war in which O’Brien and many others tried so hard to get out of. O’Brien uses elements such as conflict, imagery, and tone to help convey his

He is just a young soldier. Fresh out of high school and ready to go out onto the fighting ground. O’Brien describes more of the living conditions than deaths that occur around him. For example, “You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy [...]but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs-the world gets rearranged-and even though you’re pinned down by a war you’ve never felt more at peace” (O’Brien 34). This is showing what he was experiencing during an air raid bombing. As the author writes, “you’ve never felt more at peace” he is stating how the chaos and lighting of the bombs have shown him that this is his new way of life will be. The adversity is when O’Brien is comfortable with the lighting and explosions of the bombs. As he continues to speak about lifestyle, O’Brien is greeted by a field of landmines. As he says, “Step out of line, hit a mine; follow the dink, you’re in the pink” (O’Brien 32). This is showing how when greeted by landmines, the soldiers try their best to not follow the person in front of them or run to the safety of another human being. THe adversity would be if a soldier dies, then you aren’t allowed to go and be with them due to the risk of more landmines that might detonate. This is a huge fear of

Emotions and Burdens – “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing – these were intangibles, but they were tangible weight.”(20). O’brien, as well as his platoon members, had to b prepared for death at any given point in time, whether it be his own death or the death of his comrade in arms.

In the story Warriors Don't Cry, Melba and the Little Rock 9 was the first high school students to integrate and they integrated to Little Rock Central High. Melba and the Little Rock 9 went through a lot during the school year, like bulled by white students, killing threats, being bombed/caught on fire, hurt physically/mentally, etc. What Melba had to use strength to get through integration, like the strength of being a warrior. Also, Melba had many sources of strength, like her mom, her grandma, Danny/Melba's guard, religion, keeping hope, etc. Lastly, Melba had to stay calm in the situations she was in so she used her strength to help her.

1. How does O’Brien use The Things They Carried to cope with the psychological impact of his experience in the war?

. . . Like I was losing myself, everything spilling out” (O’Brien 202). Provided with only laconic, expository definitions, an audience cannot truly feel the pains of war. O’Brien utilizes descriptions which evoke all the senses and submerge the audience in the unique and powerful sensations of war. Witnessing war’s pains through the familiar tactile crunch of an ornament or the splash of liquid spilling, the audience can immediately understand the inconceivable pressure placed on the soldier’s injured body. O’Brien continues, “All I could do was scream. . . . I tightened up and squeezed. . . . then I slipped under for a while” (203). His abrupt syntax and terse diction conveys a quickness to these events. Not bothering with extraneous adornment, his raw images transport the audience to the urgency of the moment and the severity of the pain. Now supplied with an eyewitness’s perspective of war’s injuries, the audience can begin to recognize the significance of the suffering. O’Brien tells his audience, “Tinny sounds get heightened and distorted. . . . There was rifle fire somewhere off to my right, and people yelling, except none of it seemed real anymore. I smelled myself dying” (203). In the same frame, O’Brien paints the rumbling chaos of the big war juxtaposed with the slow death of the small individual. His description emphasizes the purposeless discord and confusion of war and seeks to condemn its disorder. He argues that war’s lack of

O’Brien first showed the revolution in himself. Before this war it was uncommon for a man to not want to fight in the war because they always had a reason to and felt it was their duty. The Vietnam War

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses Juxtaposition, Symbolism, and Point of View to show the burdens carried by the soldiers, and the effects war can have on individuals. He wrote the vignette in order to bring a greater awareness to Americans who were unaware of the dark reality of war. Juxtapositions, such as Desire versus Shame, Morality versus Crime, and Talking versus Distraction, are primary modes by which O’Brien shares the burdens of soldiers. Also, individual juxtapositions such as “Gentle Killer (O’Brien 66)” are used along with dichotomies as a window into the heart of the soldiers, and to show the ambivalence they held when making choices. “On the Rainy River” describes the Desire versus Shame conflict within O’Brien immediately after he was drafted for the Vietnam.

O’Brien understood that Rat Kiley wasn’t the only one that was terrified of seeing the dead bodies and being in war. He knew that the other soldiers felt the same way and empathized with them as well. For O’Brien, as “the nights got freaky,” “it was a sad to watch”(210) the soldiers trying to survive. Rat Kiley could no longer hold in the pain and hurt he was feeling which led to him shooting himself in the foot. O’Brien was understanding and didn’t blame him though. He understood that everyone was afraid, not just Rat Kiley. The other soldiers were just better at coping with the

In this passage O’brien demonstrates his own character traits. As a writer, he has a strong ability to understand what others are feeling and sympathize. When he kills the young soldier, he creates a story around him, imaging the soldier as having similar struggles to his own. He deeply regrets the soldier's death because he feels that neither of them really wanted to be fighting in this war and relates his own life story to the fictional one he creates for the soldier.

The book The Warrior Ethos, by Steven Pressfield depicts the warrior’s mentality from ancient times to the present through a variety of different aspects and stories. In The Warrior Ethos, Pressfield states that men are not born with the certain qualities that make a good warrior, but instead are inculcated through years of training and indoctrination, stating at an early age. He goes on to show how different societies have been able to instill the same or very similar ideals throughout history while maintaining their own unique characteristics. Things have changed from ancient Sparta where parents would be enthusiastic about their children going to war, and even more elated

This is a different sort of Pressfield book. Unlike the historical fiction genre in which he’s written such best-sellers as “Gates of Fire,” “The Afghan Campaign, and “The Profession,” “The Warrior Ethos” is the culmination of years of discussions Pressfield’s been having with Marines and others who were taken with the blend of courage-under-fire and humanity shown by Leonidas, Dienekes, Matthais, Gent, and the other characters in his books. “I wanted to give something back to our men and women fighting overseas,” Pressfield told Gazette, so I put together the best anecdotes and stories from all my research about the Spartans, Alexander's Macedonians, the Romans, and Rommel.”