The short story “The Sniper”, by Liam O’Flaherty and the poem “The Man He Killed,” by Thomas Hardy both use themes of guilt and regret to emphasize how war negatively affects the soldiers fighting it. In “The Man He Killed”, Hardy’s character, a war veteran, wonders what might have happened had he met the man he killed anywhere other than war. The soldier feels a strong sense of confusion and guilt because he realized the man he killed could have been his friend elsewhere. The veteran’s guilt resembles significant similarity to that of O’Flaherty’s character in “The Sniper”. The main character, a sniper in the Irish civil war, unknowingly kills his brother in a battle. The sniper felt remorse even before recognizing the body. The snipers’ sense
War is often thought about as something that hardens a soldier. It makes a person stronger emotionally because they are taught not show it and deal with it internally. People say that death in war is easier to handle because it is for the right reasons and a person can distance themselves from the pain of losing someone. However, there is always a point when the pain becomes too real and it is hard to maintain that distance. In doing so, the story disputes the idea that witnessing a traumatic event causes a numbing or blockage of feelings. Rat Kiley’s progression of sentiment began with an initial concern for the buffalo, transforming into an irate killing of the animal, and then ending with an ultimate acceptance of death. These outward displays of feeling suggested that witnessing the death of a close friend caused him to become emotionally involved in the war.
After an event of large magnitude, it still began to take its toll on the protagonist as they often “carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die” during the war (O’Brien 1187). The travesties that occurred with the brutality of war did not subside and began to affect those involved in a deeply emotional way. The multitude of disastrous happenings influenced the narrator to develop a psychological handicap to death by being “afraid of dying” although being “even more afraid to show it” (O’Brien 1187). The burden caused by the war creates fear inside the protagonist’s mind, yet if he were to display his sense of distress it would cause a deeper fear for those around him, thus making the thought of exposing the fear even more frightening. The emotional battle taking place in the psyche of the narrator is directly repressed by the war.
The sentencing of underage criminals has remained a logistical and moral issue in the world for a very long time. The issue is brought to our perspective in the documentary Making a Murderer and the audio podcast Serial. When trying to overcome this issue, we ask ourselves, “When should juveniles receive life sentences?” or “Should young inmates be housed with adults?” or “Was the Supreme Court right to make it illegal to sentence a minor to death?”. There are multiple answers to these questions, and it’s necessary to either take a moral or logical approach to the problem.
It is apparent that the topic of war is difficult to discuss among active duty soldiers and civilians. Often times, citizens are unable to understand the mental, physical, and physiological burden service members experience. In Phil Klay’s Ten Kliks South, the narrator struggles to cope with the idea that his artillery team has killed enemy forces. In the early stages of the story, the narrator is clearly confused. He understands that he did his part in firing off the artillery rounds, yet he cannot admit to killing the opposition. In order to suppress his guilt and uncertainty, our narrator searches for guidance and reassurance of his actions. He meets with an old gunnery sergeant and during their conversation, our narrator’s innocence
In Hemingway’s “In Another Country”, the main character, Nick Adams, and the major both have their lives changed by the war. Nick Adams lost part of his leg from the war, yet remains hopeful that he will return to the United States and marry someone. However, the major has the opposite view. He used to be the greatest fencer in Italy, yet his hand is shrunken grotesquely from the war. He recently married his wife when he learned he was free of the war, yet she died from pneumonia. The major has lost hope for the future and bears many similarities with sufferers of PTSD. In Bierce’s “Coup de Grace”, the major characters are the two friends, Captain Madwell and Sergeant Halcrow, and Halcrow’s brother and Madwell’s “enemy”, Major Halcrow. Earlier in the story, a conversation between the captain and the major demonstrates the hate they bear toward each other. Then, when Madwell finds his friend, Madwell kills him, believing it is the best thing he could do for his friend. Although Madwell and Halcrow were friends before the war, Bierce uses the war to force Madwell to kill his best friend. This, in a nutshell, shows that the horror of war has the power to affect characters and their
The Man I Killed tells the story of a man, Tim, who killed a soldier during the Vietnam War. Tim killed this story out of obligation and not because he aspired to. After killing the Viet Cong soldier, Tim O’Brien describes himself as feeling a bit guilty and compunctious. When selected soldiers enter war such as the Vietnam War, some are capable of killing while others kill because they have a legacy to uphold. Physically, a soldier may appear strong but mentally, a solider may not meet the qualifications. The author uses many literary elements such as point of view, repetition, and setting to outline the way Tim O’Brien was really feeling.
The death of a fellow human, whether it be soldier or friend or maybe even both, never goes silently into the night, no it happens and always has consequences. Whether they are physical or emotional there will always be damage. In Tim O'brien's The Things They Carried soldiers During the Vietnam War, as can be expected, deal with heavy burdens of guilt and shame but that’s only half the struggle. The other begins soon after the death occurs. Coping with the deaths, actions and crimes committed during this war is more often than not harder to get over than the emotional blow itself. Throughout this paper the following things will be discussed: the burdens the main characters in The Things They Carried and the emotional toll of each, the struggle
The Man I Killed, a short story about the traumatic experience of the Vietnam War was written by Tim O’Brien and published in 1990. As a scholar who graduated from Macalester College, O’Brien was drafted into the army to fight in Vietnam, which shattered his plan of continuing his studies. He felt obligated to fight in a war he did not want to participate in. After returning from Vietnam, he began writing to cope with his suffering. In the story, O’Brien depicts how the murder he committed had a profound impact on his life physically and psychologically. He emphasizes his torment by the use of imagery and imagination. His fellow soldiers, Azar and Kiowa, try to ease O’Brien’s misery in order to continue the battle. The story explores the theme
On the morning of April 20, 1999, Eric Davis Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold went into the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, and went on a rampage killing spree leaving 12 students and 1 teacher dead and over 20 people injured before killing themselves. This crime is known as one of the most deadliest school massacres in the United States history (Pittaro).
The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it.
Both the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and the poem "The Man he Killed" by Thomas Hardy discuss war. Through both the novel and the poem, it is articulated how the soldiers personally feel about the war and their experiences during the war. The protagonist of the novel, Paul Baumer, and the speaker of the poem both share comparable emotions. Both enroll in the war for reasons other than patriotism, their perception towards war is very analogous, they kill their enemy merely to stay alive and they go to the extent of feeling that if not for the war, they could have been friends with their "enemies".
In “Ambush,” Tim O’Brien conveys a sense of regret and uncertainty as he attempts to justify his actions of killing an enemy soldier in Vietnam. (MS 7) While serving in the Vietnam War, O’Brien sees an enemy soldier approaching. His military training prompts O’Brien to throw a grenade, killing the soldier instantly. The reoccurring memory of killing the soldier haunts O’Brien for years. Throughout his essay, O’Brien uses the literary elements imagery, tone, and irony to portray his sense of regret and uncertainty. (MS 2)
Enemies and allies, foes and friends; they are both so different, yet so similar. Then again, how can one be an enemy, if the other doesn’t know who or what they're fighting against. In Thomas Hardy’s poem, “The Man He Killed” and in Tim O’Brien’s story “The Man I Killed”, both authors portray the reactions and realizations of a soldier after he kills another man, while fighting in war. Both authors describe how the dead enemy could’ve easily been the soldier instead and they saw their lives being the dead soldier’s instead. However, while O’Brien’s character killed the other man in order to survive, Hardy’s speaker did not know why he killed the other. While war maybe a conflict regarding two opposing sides, killing another person, with or without a worthy justification, has a large impact on the person’s thoughts of mortality.
Peter Smerick, a former FBI criminal profiler says there are 2 types of medical killers. (Kaplan, 2007). 1. The Hero Killer. This type of killer would put a patient under great risk. If they save the patient they are a hero. If the patient dies the killer will say "so what"? 2. The Mercy killer. This doctor rationalizes that they are concerned about the suffering of a patient and put them out of their misery. They count on the fact that an autopsy is not usually done on a terminally ill patient. Medicine attracts a certain kind of personality who is lured by the power of life and death. If I had to choose one of these representations I'd chose The Hero killer. I believe he developed a God complex and got a thrill out of determining when a person dies and when to end their suffering. Many of these murderers have a narcissistic personality. A doctor who cannot step back early from the casualties of treatment to seek assistance and stop what they are doing do not have the ability to admit when they are wrong and go to great lengths to get what they want.
In the crosshairs of, US Navy Seal, Chris Kyle’s scope, sits a woman and a young boy who appear to be attempting to hide something. Seconds pass, and the woman passes the item to the boy, revealing to Kyle and anyone around just what they have, a deadly grenade. After talking to his partner and his general on his radio, he has to make a choice, to kill or not to kill. His partner makes the decision harder by telling him “They’ll fry you if you’re wrong,” regarding if the child in question is actually a threat or simply a misunderstanding. This is the opening scene in the 2015 film, “American Sniper” which is based on the real life events experienced by Chris Kyle in Iraq (Eastwood, 2015).