The Things They Carried and Herbert’s Article War is Personal :: Things They Carried Essays

   The Things They Carried and Herberts Article struggle is Personal     Bob Herberts word, strugglefare is Personal, has some parallels to Tim OBriens novel The Things They Carried. Although OBriens novel deals with the Vietnam War and Herberts article deals with the current war with Iraq, both describe the position of Ameri outhouse soldiers and their struggle with living in war. OBriens novel is more personal than Herberts physical object article but both show the importance of presumption, significance of pain, and the little terror of young soldiers face.   In war it is important to be able to dedicate your fellow soldiers and allies because the conditions of war already has soldiers a bit jumpy, and edgy, correspond to Captain mob McGahey in Herberts article. In OBriens novel Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen watch into a fight over a stolen jackknife. Jenson injured Strunk and then stone-broke his own nose because he was afraid of Strunk retaliating. Jensen was not able to trust Strunk to remain non-violent, which is important because, you never want to have to think whether you can trust the guy to your left or right, according to Captain James McGahey in Herberts article. Strunk and Jensen were able to trust each other again, making the war a little easier to handle. Although the article and novel were about two contrasting wars, the two still serve as complements to each other.   Another advert event in war is the pain soldiers go through. OBrien describes the pain of many injuries he and his platoon mates have gone through. When OBrien got shot the second time, the medic, Jorgenson, was unskilled and didnt respond immediately. As OBrien explains, by the time Jorgenson got to him, I was gone with pain.(198) The like pain OBrien experienced was explained by a soldier in Herberts article who stated, There was nothing in the whole world except me and that pain. Wars excruciate pain is unavoidab le for the young soldiers that have to experience it.   The soldiers are as well as a parallel in the two wars. Soldiers are young and not always in war for the right reasons. As Mrs. Paine says in Herberts article, Theyre just now children, really.