Beau Largent

10 April 16

Phillips

English 101-022

The Man I Killed

 With the amount of violence we see on the Internet and in the news, you would think we would make a difference but it truly doesn't affect you until you see that same violence in person. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien shows that violence in person. We get to dive into a soldiers mind to understand the baggage and hardship that comes with war. War is not a one-dimensional obstacle; it covers many aspects and affects various different things about a soldier. Normally we see war as killing and that's it, but really war is just as emotionally challenging as it is physically. Historical events have shown that war is never easy and can lead to homelessness, drug addiction and mental problems. The Things They Carried describes the experiences of foot soldiers in Vietnam after the tragic war. Because the book is based on soldiers' experiences during the Vietnam War, it is only suiting to talk about the background of the Vietnam War and what has transpired out of its mania. The Vietnam War lasted from 1957 until 1975. 2,700,000 Americans served in the Vietnam War. This was the first war in which America failed to meet its objectives and failed as a nation to honor the veterans returning home, refusing to call them heroes. Readjusting back into society and having health issues were only two examples. According to the VA, "America's homeless veterans have served in World War II, Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Operation Iraq Freedom and the wars in South America" (National Coalition for the Homeless Para 3). 47% of our homeless population served in the Vietnam War. "During World War 1, soldiers returning home who had trouble acclimating to civilian life were determined to have "shell shock" (Ritchie 11). Soldiers who returned disturbed from World War II were deemed to have something "not yet diagnosed, nervous (battle fatigue). 

The main causes of homelessness among veterans include lack of income due to limited education and skills; combat related physical injuries, mental health issues, substance abuse problems and weak social skills to adjust into civilian life. O'Brien let's us see this through multiple short stories that could all hold on there own, but intertwine throughout the novel. In the cliche war story most of the time is spent on the battlefield in combat. O'Brien explains his idea of war: "In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of the truth itself, and therefore it's safe to say that in a true war story, nothing is ever absolutely true" (O'Brien). But in O'Brien's story there isn't much action in battle, it is mostly about how the soldiers react and make it through such a gruesome and challenging combat. In the chapter, The Man I Killed, O'Brien expresses how a normal man can become a brutal killer when war and hardships are surrounding him. O'Brien uses horrific imagery, purposeful sentence structure, and the 1st person/ 3rd person point of view to express the emotions and guilt that come with war and how it affects soldiers in battle. He paints the picture of the outlasting effects the Vietnam War left for American culture and the PTSD that has cause so many soldiers lives to change. By Vietnam the diagnoses of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, was coined. Re-integrating back into society after being deployed demands a lot of work of the soldier and his or her family. 

Tim O'Brien uses the whole first page of the chapter to express horrific imagery in The Man I Killed. He explains every detail of the man's mutilated face and body. Such as when the narrator says, " the skin at his left cheek was peeled back in three raged stripes " (118). O'Brien's use of imagery allows him to set the tone for the overall theme. It allows him to explain how brutal the war was and how it could change a man who didn't even want to enter the war to a stone cold killer just based on the surrounding environment. War is cruel, dangerous and traumatizing to many people. The difficult transition from military to civilian life challenges veterans returning home. This led to the cultural difficulties, as Veterans are more at risk of becoming homeless rather than normal citizens. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs explains how the nation's homeless population as of 2014 is approximately 22.5 million. O'Brien then goes on to imagine the life of this lifeless man in extreme detail," He had been born, maybe, in 1946 in the village of My Khe near the central coastline of Quang Ngai Province, where his parents farmed, and where his family had lived for several centuries "(119). O'Brien paints a portrait to the reader of what was going on in Tim's mind at the moment. Kiowa tries to force Tim away, knowing there was nothing Tim could do at that type of life or death moment. This expresses the challenging times these soldiers were forced to deal with. In one moment you are brutally killing someone, while the next moment you are mourning over the dead body you killed. The brutally and number of deaths was the main reason the Vietnam War had such a long lasting result on society. This depiction conveys how dark the imagery O'Brien uses which lets the reader understand just how brutal the war was. 

O'Brien's less than conventional sentence structure serves a purpose to the reader. It expresses the soldier's thought process during the most hectic moments in time. He starts off the chapter and says, " His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole, his eyebrows were thin and arched like a woman's, his nose was undamaged, there was a slight tear at the lobe of one ear ... "(118). That sentence goes on and on just pouring thoughts. In that first sentence, O'Brien uses 12 commas and 11 lines to show the thought process of Tim as how he was staring down at the dead body. Showing the reader what was really going through Tim's mind, his thoughts just pouring over him with no conclusion. Tim O'Brien's interesting sentence structure and run on sentences really grabs the reader's attention with how it is supposed to be read, and what the soldier or narrator experienced. Using this choppy but quick way of listing information allows flow like the thoughts in that particular section probably did. It gives a very realistic sense to the book, showing what actually happens to the soldiers and what they had to face. This brash style of writing can really catch the reader's attention versus your normal novel style. It is not for everyone but Tim O'Brien uses this method in a brilliant way to tie into the main purpose of showcasing the affects of war. 

Lastly, this passage takes advantage of the jump between first person and third person. The chapter starts out with Tim, the narrator, describing all the details of the mans' wounds and his body stature. Then Tim starts to feel guilty about his killing and fabricates the story that the dead man was a scholar who grew up not a communist but from a line of fighters. The dead man knew he wanted to fight, but was always afraid that his small body and frailness would prevent him. Here O'Brien switches from a deep narrator point of view to brash dialogue:

He hoped the Americans would go away. Soon, he hoped. He kept hoping and hoping, always, even when he was asleep. "Oh, man, you fuckin' trashed the fucker," Azar said. "You scrambled his sorry self, look at that, you did, you laid him out like Shredded fuckin' wheat." (119)

This really catches the reader's attention, first with a sorry plead for help and then all of a sudden Azar comes in hard to change the mood. The switch of point of view really makes an impact in this chapter. Azar relates the man to being laid like a 'Shredded fuckin' wheat'. This jarring comment shows the reader how Azar tries to make light of the situation. The way Tim O'Brien makes the transition from first to third person is smooth but attention grabbing at the same time. O'Brien uses this to his advantage and expresses the thoughts of the soldiers with this clash and how the soldiers have to deal with this on the daily. 

Using horrific imagery, purposeful sentence structure and the first person/third person point of view, O'Brien relates emotion to guilt and how that can affect soldiers in battle. In The Man I Killed, O'Brien introduces the first few paragraphs in deep detail; O'Brien shows the reader a reality not known to many. A man's neck open to reveal his spinal cord, thick blood on a fresh wound and a man laying face up, dead. He goes on to explain the dead man's life deeper so the reader can better understand where he came from. The reader learns many detailed facts about the man, about how he liked books, where his parents farmed and how his health was deteriorated. O'Brien grabs the reader's attention through gruesome imagery. Purposeful sentence structure plays a huge role in understanding the true meaning of the text. The author's word choice shows a different perspective and point of view on a man's reaction to emotion and guilt. The raw emotion of killing a man out of pure rage begins the story. A man changes his ways for survival out in the field. A loss of innocence plays a huge role in a man's first killing. Relating emotion to guilt can be shown when the killing of a man out of pure rage results in tremendous guilt. Weeping over the body of a man you have just killed is shown in this story. Emotion and guilt come hand in hand during this time. Emotional problems appear after returning due to the horrors of war. Their innocence is stripped away because of what they have witnessed during their time deployed. O'Brien's The Things They Carried demonstrates the life of a soldier after war. Nightmares of gruesome attacks and killings replay in their heads night after night. Anger, feeling nervous, helpless and fearful becomes reality.

Dark and eerie imagery shows the reader how these two emotions are brought to life. " ... Tim, it's a war. The guy wasn't Heidi- he had a weapon, right? It's a tough thing, for sure, but you got to cut out that staring" (120). Feeling guilty about the mans death, Tim feels confused not knowing if he has killed a man he knows or a stranger. Kiowa reminds him that this is a war they are fighting and innocent lives are going to be lost. Emotion plays a role in the two characters reactions but guilt occupies their minds. In conclusion, O'Brien's use of descriptive imagery, well-structured sentences and first/third person point of view explains how the emotion of man can be related back to deep built up guilt. Alike to Obrien's character, soldiers returning home feel a huge amount of guilt because they have lost so many of their comrades in war. Feeling unworthy of life and what it has to offer, re-acclimating themselves to the life they left behind becomes impossible. Returning home from Vietnam, veterans experienced horrible treatment which only amplified the guilt. Obrien's characters returning from war experience some of the same emotions felt throughout the history of humans.  This short story gives the reader a closer look into the lives of those who sacrifice their own sanity for the freedom of others. Through O'Brien's text we are able to better understand the true meaning of war and its many challenges. The challenges of losing one self, one self's innocence and feeling the deep emotions brought on by combat. Countless wars fought and countless troops have been sent home to integrate back into society

Work Cited

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway, 1998. Print.

Morin, Rich. "The Difficult Transition from Military to Civilian Life." Pew Research Centers Social Demographic Trends Project RSS. N.p., 08 Dec. 2011. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.

"Homeless Veterans." National Coalition for the Homeless. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.

"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder." NIMH RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.
