Final TTTC Essay..

Jesica Shipley

Aiken

3/14/10

College English 1102

Understanding Internal Conflicts of the Characters
In this story there is description of the possessions, fears, and attitudes of the soldiers in the Alpha Company. All of the soldiers carry the things that they need, a few things that they want, and a few things that society has forced upon them. They carry “emotional baggage, shameful memories, cowardice, and their reputation” (21). Thomas Hobbes once wrote that “war is nasty, brutish, and short”. War may be nasty, and war may be brutish, but it is not short. Both during war and after war “Remembering is turned into a kind of rehapening … The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension replaying itself over and over” (32). The war does not end when the war with guns is over, because the painfulness of death and loss of innocence haunts these soldiers long after the war has ended, and that is when the true war starts. After the fiscal war has ended they are each faced with separate wars within themselves.
In "On The Rainy River" O'Brien begins the story by saying “I have never told this story to anyone. (39)" Society would think of him as a coward for running from the war, and even if they didn’t he felt shameful of himself for running away from the draft, and coming so close to crossing over into Canada. What he didn’t know was that there was part of a soldier inside of him, there had to be because he was given the chance, and did not hide. He tells us that he could not stand the sight of blood, which is ironic being that he works in a slaughter house, and he tells us that he knows nothing about weapons and fighting. He was head of his class and student body president, but he couldn't tell a rifle from a slingshot. He was planning to continue his education even further, and he was angry that he had been drafted to fight in a war in which he hated.
In "The Ghost Soldiers" O'Brien was no longer a coward, he had become a soldier and was no longer afraid of blood, and knew more weapons than ever. He had hardened and become jealous that he was no longer in the war with his fellow soldiers, jealous enough to harass the medic who had "mistreated" him before. But at the end he realized that the reason the medic had mistreated him was for the same reason that O’Brien had run from the war in the first place. He was scared, blinded by fear, and didn't know what to do so in a sense he ran from his duties. By this time it was too late for O'Brien to stop the prank that he had planned with Azar. Azar, along with the medic became angry with O’Brien, and Azar kicked him in the head and the medic gave him proper treatment this time.
The main difference between these two chapters is that "On The Rainy River" he was scared and confused, the war was all new to him and he had no interest in being a part of it and most defiantly not by force. But in "The Ghost Soldiers" he was bitter, angry and jealous that his friends got to continue fighting and that he was no longer allowed. He began to take his anger out on someone who had mistreated him before and then quickly realized that that person was scared just like he had been, and that the war had now hardened him and that he had become accustomed to war, just as O’Brien had.
O’Brien is the lens through which we experience most of the action in this novel. While in war, O’Brien builds up painful memories and anguish that he deals with by retelling his stories in this book. Throughout the novel we learn of many internal conflicts that he experienced including the man that he killed and feeling that he could not tell his daughter the truth; however the most prominent conflict that he has, is the struggle to release the internal pain that he experiences because of the war.
Norman Bowker is a foot soldier in the Alpha Company who believes what makes men good soldiers are the medals that they receive while in service. He is very quiet because he doesn’t really understand how to deal with his feelings, and symbolizes the isolation many soldiers feel after returning home. Bowker embodies the damage that war can cause to ones soul long after the war is over with. Once he returns home he has a difficult time adjusting from being a soldier to a civilian, while everyone that he knows has no problem continuing with their everyday lives. He feels that he can not relate to anyone, partially because of his inability to successfully communicate his feelings with others. O’Brien said that Bowker was a man who did not know what to feel, and since Bowker could not find words for his feelings, in “Notes” he turned to O’Brien to tell his story for him.
Norman Bowker’s largest conflict within himself is that he cannot forgive himself for Kiowa’s death. After the war he obtains what is called survivor guilt and becomes angry due to his intense feelings and atrocious memories of war. He directs this anger not at the world or the society that sent him to the war, but directed it toward himself. Bowker tried dealing with his feelings through writing, but when he was unsuccessful with that he helped to teach O’Brien how to articulate the true pain through story telling. His letter to O’Brien, “Notes” proves the importance of story telling in the healing process, however since Bowker had a hard time telling the stories himself he eventually commits suicide. What is ironic is that O’Brien created Bowker as a fictional character to provide a purpose for writing this story of war, but Bowker takes his own life because he feels that he lacks an objective to live.
Rat Kiley is the platoon’s medic, and is known for embellishing all of his stories. In “The Things They Carried” Kiley talks about how he writes a letter to the sister of Curt Lemon when Lemon is killed, but never gets a reply. He is haunted by Lemons death to the point where it is unbearable to him. It is not easy for him to deal with Lemons death because he was there, right in front of him when it happened. They were just being boys, playing a game with the smoke grenades that they had played a million times before, but this time they were not as careful as they should have been. In a way Kiley experiences a sort of survivor guilt much like Bowker did, because he was right beside Lemon and it could have just as easily killed Kiley. He becomes overwhelmed with this pain and tortures a baby buffalo, and later in the novel he becomes paranoid, having visions of body parts. He is a medic and is around death 24/7, of course because he is in the middle of a war, but more so because it is his job to save people from death.
When he is switched to a night mission for two weeks it becomes clear why he made the decision that he did. This night mission symbolizes death, and Kiley can only think of one way to escape the conflicts that he faces, all involveing death. So he shoots himself in the toe to escape the war, and the death that is around him.
While society may think that he is a coward for running from the hardships of war, the reader understands that Kiley was brave enough to conquer death, unlike Bowker who died physically and Mary-Anne Bell who let the little American girl inside of her die once she was exposed to Nam. Kiley helps show us the limits that a man can take and that even the best soldiers will eventually succumb to the stresses of war and their role in it.
Mitchell Sanders is a great soldier and a loyal friend. He refuses to inflict revenge on the medic that took Kiley’s place, and stands by Kiley in his decision to remove himself from the war. He has a good sense of humor, picking lice off of his body and mailing it back to his draft board in Ohio. Sanders refuses to forgive Jimmy Cross when he led them into the sewage fields because that is what killed Kiowa. With Mitch Sanders it is difficult to understand what his conflict is at first, but as we read further into the novel we get to know him more and realize that his conflict is finding a moral. He doesn’t seem to have a problem being in the war, but he has a problem with not understanding why he is there. He believes that in every story there is a moral because without it there is not point, and since it is the experiences that create the stories then every experience must own a moral as well. He teaches us the difference between listening and hearing, and helps us to understand how soldiers think.
Henry Dobbins is a big strong man who symbolizes the good intentions of America. He is very sympathetic and cruelty angers him and he treats both his friends and enemies with respect. While Dobbins himself is not a complex character, his conflict is a little more complicated that the others. It is different because his conflict is not a negative one; it is simply to not stop believing. He wears panty hose around his neck strongly believing that they are his good luck charm and he joins the clergy towards the middle of the book. What he struggles with is focusing on believing. He teaches us that it is not what you believe in that truly matters, but the simple fact that you believe in something, because if you have nothing to believe in then you have no motive to make it out alive.
Throughout this story each character helps to demonstrate how each person deals differently with the limits of innocence and human understanding when confronted by something as powerful and terrifying as war. We are able to understand what it was that drove them to “kick corpses, cut off thumbs, joke of death, mock dead men, and speak grunt lingo” (20). Listening to and understanding each of their stories helps us as the reader recognize how they truly felt, what it was that they as individuals were truly fighting for and what they were up against.