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

The Things They Carried and Herbert’s Article War is Personal Bob Herbert's article, "War is Personal," has many parallels to Tim O'Brien's novel The Things They Carried. Although O'Brien's novel deals with the Vietnam War and Herbert's article deals with the current war with Iraq, both describe the position of American soldiers and their struggle with living in war. O'Brien's novel is more personal than Herbert's objective article but both show the importance of trust, significance of pain, and the terror of young soldiers face. In war it is important to be able to trust your fellow soldiers and allies because the conditions of war already has soldiers "a bit jumpy, [and] edgy," according to Captain James McGahey in Herbert's article. In O'Brien's novel Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen get into a fight over a stolen jackknife. Jenson injured Strunk and then 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 Herbert's 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 different wars, the two still serve as complements to each other. Another key event in war is the pain soldiers go through. O'Brien describes the pain of many injuries he and his platoon mates have gone through. When O'Brien got shot the second time, the medic, Jorgenson, was incompetent and didn't respond immediately. As O'Brien explains, by the time Jorgenson got to him, "I was gone with pain."(198) The same pain O'Brien experienced was explained by a soldier in Herbert's article who stated, "There was nothing in the whole world except me and that pain." War's excruciating pain is unavoidable for the young soldiers that have to experience it. The soldiers are also a parallel in the two wars. Soldiers are young and not always in war for the right reasons. As Mrs. Paine says in Herbert's article, "They're just children, really.