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

   The Things They Carried and Herberts Article fight is Personal     Bob Herberts article, War is Personal, has many parallels to Tim OBriens fiction 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 American soldiers and their struggle with living in war. OBriens novel is more personal than Herberts objective article but both show the importance of want, 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 Herberts article. In OBriens novel downwind 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 Str unk to remain non-violent, which is important because, you never want to cave in 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 different wars, the two so far serve as complements to each other.   Another key 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 incompetent and didnt respond immediately. As OBrien explains, by the time Jorgenson got to him, I was gone with pain.(198) The same pain OBrien catchd was explained by a soldier in Herberts article who stated, There was nothing in the whole world except me and that pain. Wars 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 Herberts article, Theyre just children, really.