Without Remorse Tom Clancy Analysis

Years after John Wade returned from Vietnam, he was still experiencing nightmares and horrible illusions about what had gone on. The war effected John deeply, but he came out the same John Wade underneath. He continued to cover up the truth, just as he had done years earlier with his mirror. John Wade's characteristics, the things that made him who he was, were the result of his childhood, adulthood and the war – rather than the war shaping him, it was life

The banter between him and his company is what mostly makes the story interesting. He uses the support of his friends to help him gain the courage that a soldier needs. One example of this is when he meets Erik. Erik also feels that the war isn't the United States problem, and together they fight the government to fight the war. Another Comrade is Bates he doesn't believe in the mistreatment of the Vietnamese people just because they assume they are traitors.

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.”

     There is a Motif in this book that pertains to Casualties in Vietnam. Through John we see the crippling effects of the War in Vietnam on citizens across America. We see his indecision for the direction of the rest of his life.

Tim O' Brien, a soldier affected by the Vietnam War, reflects on his experiences when his daughter asks herself if he has ever taken a life. When she is nine years old, nearly 20 years after the Vietnam War is over, Kathleen asks her a question. Has he ever killed someone, she wants to know. O’Brien decides to tell her that he hasn’t. It felt like the “right thing to do”; he thinks when she is a grown-up she will understand better. Maybe then O’Brien will tell her about the slim young man who still obsesses him, whom he still thinks about when reading the newspaper.

In this final chapter, O’Brien strings the various threads of plot events together to form a cohesive message. Each of the major themes is illuminated as each of the major stories is retold mostly told about Vietnam and a younger version of himself

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

O’Brien begins to describe the death of a fellow soldier Curt Lemon and how his best friend Rat Kelly dealt with his death. He explains that the two were playing catch when Lemon stepped on a booby trap and died. To deal with his pain from losing his best friend, Kelly shot a water buffalo thinking that by shooting the animal his pain would be relieved. Kelly wrote Lemon’s sister a letter to tell her “what a great brother she had (68). Lemon’s sister didn’t reply to the letter which hurt him even more. Kelly experienced a detachment between war and people that never experience. We get

In the story titled “The Man I Killed” O’Brien reflects on the events leading to and following his killing of a Vietnamese soldier via a grenade. He goes on to tell the reactions of his platoon mates as well as his own. The explosion of the grenade left the Vietnamese soldier’s face burned and unrecognizable. This symbolizes the life of so many of the thousands of dead Vietnamese soldiers that too were killed and consequently buried. These dead soldiers went unidentified and failed to bring their respective families closure. O’Brien struggles to cope with

Hundreds of bodies littered the ground. Sounds of explosions and endless gunfire filled the air. Soldiers, with their uniforms splashed in crimson, fought viciously and ruthlessly. Their main objective, which was to win the battle, took a backseat to their newfound desperation to stay alive. After all, war is not a game, especially one such as the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and left its survivors haunted by a multitude of atrocious events. Terry Erickson’s father and George Robinson, who were two fictional characters from the short stories “Stop the Sun” and “Dear America”, respectively, were veterans of the Vietnam War. The differences and similarities between Terry’s father and George Robinson are striking, and they merit rigorous scrutiny.

Tim O’Brien frequently recalls back on memories, adding backstories to small details. During the war due to high pressure and tension, Tim purposely overlooked a lot of the sensory details of the dead bodies to avoid the guilt and trauma of killing another person. In Good From, Tim O’Brien reveals the difference between happening truth and story truth by giving examples of the two, “Here is the happening-truth...There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I'm left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief.”(121) Tim feels severe guilt for killing people in Vietnam but never formally recognizing them as an actual human being. To reconcile for his killings, Tim provides a backstory for all the people he killed. He created the story with the man with the star shaped hole as a representation for the actual people he killed. He wanted the people he killed to be viewed as real people with facial features. After his happening truth statement, Tim O’Brien follows up with “the story-truth... His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut, the other eye was a star-shaped hole. I killed him.”(121) By substituting the dead with an actual human figure, Tim can provide a character for he and the readers to empathy with. Tim O’Brien can finally recover by recognizing and honoring the dead soldiers he killed as well as extend their story to a broader audiences. Brien concludes the chapter by saying that“ “What stories can do... is make things present. I can look at things I never looked at.”(121) Tim affirms that he feel humans and alive again by having emotions. The ability to feel grief for the dead allows Tim to reflect the past and move forward with his

Without any belief to guide the major decisions in his life John would grow up being indecisive. Taking no responsibility for his own life, and instead being lead through it by Owen, his grandmother, and Dan. When faced with the draft to Vietnam it was Owen Meany who would ultimately make the decision for him. Owen is the foil to John, where John doubts Owen has unwavering faith in God, causing him to be able to make decisions.

Tragic events are taking place shortly after the start of the service in the new location. A companion who brought the lieutenant to the duty station dies in a clash with the native Indians, and the Fort Commander commits suicide. John remains one in his unfamiliar surroundings and must somehow survive among the harsh nature and not very hospitable Indian tribes.

For this reason, John ends up explaining to Murphy’s mother what exactly happened to him after she questions the letter, finishing the story with John being let out on good behavior and reminiscing on the death of his fellow comrade.

Tim O’Brien tells the story of him and his platoon in Vietnam as well as a little about what each had experienced before and after the war. He tells each story in different way to elaborate on different things that happened around the same time. This complicated method emphasizes how he and each of his platoon member felt together while in Nam.It may jump from tale to tale in the stroy, but it has a clear message. In the story The Things They Carried O’Brien explains in different ways about being away from home can cause dramatic changes to someone in an alienating or a beneficial way.