What Loss And Grief?

To be engaged in war is to be engaged in an armed conflict. Death is an all too ordinary product of war. It is an unsolicited reward for many soldiers that are fighting for their country’s own fictitious freedom. For some of these men, the battlefield is a glimpse into hell, and for others, it is a means to heaven. Many people worry about what happens during war and what will become of their loved ones while they’re fighting, but few realize what happens to those soldiers once they come home. The short stories "Soldier's Home” by Ernest Hemingway and "Speaking of Courage” by Tim O'Brien explore the thematic after effects of war and how it impacts a young person's life. Young people who

"You just don 't know," she said. "You hide in this little fortress, behind wire and sandbags, and you don 't know what it 's all about. Sometimes I want to eat this place. Vietnam. I want to swallow the whole country—the dirt, the death—I just want to eat it and have it there inside me. That 's how I feel. It 's like . . . this appetite. I get scared sometimes—lots of times—but it 's not bad. You know? I feel close to myself. When I 'm out there at night, I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving, my skin and my fingernails, everything, it 's like I 'm full of electricity and I 'm glowing in the dark—I 'm on fire almost—I 'm burning away into nothing—but it doesn 't matter because I know exactly who I am. You can 't feel like that anywhere else."” (O’ Brien 80-81). Tim O’ Brien shows how being in contact with the war can change a person so pure and innocent to a person who isn’t in connection with themselves and is forever trapped inside their own mind. Also it shows how the people who can’t handle the rough environment of war can have a terrible reaction and loose themselves. He also shows how the war changes you mentally making it hard for you to tell if the is the real you or just a persona you took when you couldn’t handle it anymore and needed to mask your broken soul.

Most people don’t know how it feels to lose a family member that had done service, my Grandfather had died when I was in Third Grade which was in 2011. He was a veteran of the Cold War. His cause of death was cancer. The doctors said he wasn’t going to survive. The sad part is that he died just basically a week before his 70th birthday.

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.

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 life is storytelling. I believe in stories, in their incredible power to keep people alive, to keep the living alive, and the dead.” Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, was filled with embellished stories and memories of war veterans. O’Brien’s reasoning for writing that particular book was because he believed that while a memory can die with a person, written words are forever set in stone. In his book, War was every one of the soldier’s enemy; It did not matter which side they fought on. War took men physically and mentally. O’Brien displayed how war stories were based on a certain soldier’s experiences, morals, and personality; Readers never truly knew fact from fiction. O’Brien’s intended audience were readers who were

Tim O’Brien has shown repeatedly in this story that grief is the one thing that is the hardest to carry for any person. It stays with you and will sometimes cause you even more grief. This story shines a very bright light on what was happening to the soldier when they are not in combat, and how their very emotions can eat away with them. “It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do” (482), you can see through these final thoughts of Jimmy’s that he truly thinks that there is no way for any of them to let go of the emotions that they must carry every

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

In the novel “The Things They Carried written by Tim O’Brien, the author destroys the stereotypical archetype of the warrior in shining armor bravely fighting for the good of his country. O’Brien presents the soldiers who openly express their fears, homesickness, and regrets. He discusses the physical and emotional burdens that come comes along with war. The “things” that soldiers carry are both literal and figurative. They carry sentimental items to remind them of home such as amulets, weapons, survival gear, and even emotional wounds, also they carry grief, longing, terror, and most prevalently, guilt. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the burdens on these soldiers revealed the author’s opinion of how soldiers in Vietnam defines the soldier archetype.

served alongside him. It is unfortunate that this tragedy has taken him from his family,

Throughout war literature, fiction or nonfiction, almost every character comes face to face with death. There is no easy way around it, death will always happen. In Tim O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried, death is woven within various stories narrated by the main character, O’Brien himself. Of all the death that O’Brien is surrounded by, the one that may appear to some as “just another kill”, surprisingly leaves the biggest impact. It can be seen as ironic, but after O’Brien had thrown the grenade that killed this enemy soldier, he finally received the reality check of the Vietnam War. Not only was there a reality check, but O’Brien’s storytelling about this soldier gave a whole new meaning to death itself.

What is grief? How does one cope with grief? Grief is a state of being in deep sorrow sometimes caused by someone’s death. Everyone has a different way of dealing with grief. In Tim O’Brien’s essay, How To Tell A War Story, he gives a first class view of the time he spent serving in the Vietnam war. O’Brien describes the different ways in which him and his fellow soldiers dealt with the death of other soldiers in the platoon. By recounting stories, O’Brien processes his life in Vietnam and the memories of the war him and his comrades experienced. He makes it clear that most of the stories he tells can be truthful or a version of the truth. O’Brien meshes memory and his imagination to tell stories he believes the reader would find meaningful. His approach to story telling can be related to the phenomenon of false memory. In the following paragraphs we delve into how O’Brien uses his story telling technique to recount how his fellow soldiers dealt with trauma and grief. We also analyze how O’Brien‘s story telling relates to Jack O’Brien’s podcast, ‘‘Your Memory is a Filthy Liar .’’ in which he addresses false memory.

In order to inform families about the death(s) of their loved one(s) an officer from the Navy or Army would go to the family’s home and provide them with the solemn news. Ferrara’s recollections amidst and following the war attest to the manner in which one should put life in perspective. As students, we often feel as if the stresses of our lives are grim and unbearable. However, when one understands how Willie Ferrara managed to remain calm while her husband risked his life overseas, it is easy to discern how simple it is for us to exaggerate the negative aspects of our

My mum passed away one year prior a month ago. By one means or another I have made it 395 days without hearing her voice; her voice was as beautiful as a crystal clear lake. I watched her beaming in the open darkness; her bright crescent moon smile as brilliant as the star-studded sky above us. Freckled. Eyes as blue as a cloudless sky on a summer day.

Within a year of moving from Okawville, all six of Charles and Elizabeth’s children are living in East St. Louis. With Charles now in his mid-sixties and Elizabeth in her upper-forties, they are undeniably happy to be living so close to the children and grandchildren. Five of their six kids, namely Rachel, Lena, Kate, George, and John, are married. This youngest daughter, Lizzie, is still living at home with them. They now also enjoy the company of six grandchildren. Both Charles and Elizabeth have worked hard through the years to provide a home for their children. Now they can relax and enjoy their golden years with family nearby.