Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Ghost Soldier

My favorite passage is from The Ghost Story.  Tim O'Brien explains how war makes you see things differently.  Also, that the friends you meet have a stronger bond than what they have at home.

    "Its a hard thing to explain to somebody who hasn't felt i, but the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake.  it makes things vivid. When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world. You make close friends. You become part of a tribe and you share the same blood-you give it together, you take it together."

   O'Brien makes a true statement with this.  People cannot truly feel what they have gone through if you yourself haven't experienced it.  It shows that the people surrounded by you in war have a stronger bond than anyone back at home.  They go through the same struggles so they understand one another.  In the story, Tim O'Brien misses that bond he had with them.  At first he was fond of Bobby Jorgenson because he hadn't been through the same obstacles as he had.  Once he pulled the prank on him, he knew that Jorgenson understood what it felt like to be in true fear, in a life threatening situation.  People within the Vietnam war understand each other, so they are respectable with one another.  They all share a close bond because of the experience they've gone through the war.

How does war effect a soldier?

How is friendship between soldiers different from the everyday average people?

  

2 comments:

  1. The War can effect soldiers in a lot of ways. it can make them to hate their life. It can caused them to lose their memory or get sick which they will never recovery it. it can also lead them to death.

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  2. good question, its definitely confusing and one of a kind on how war effects soldiers

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