Tim O 'Brien's If I Die In A Combat Zone'

In the textbook, the War and Peace chapter is preluded by an epigraph from Tim O’Brien’s If I Die in a Combat Zone which states: “Do dreams offer lessons? Do nightmares have themes, do we awaken and analyze them and live our lives and advise others as a result? Can the foot soldier teach anything important about war, merely for having been there? I think not. He can tell war stories.” O’Brien’s quote goes against the stereotypical depiction of the “war hero.” O’Brien believes that just because someone participates in a war does not mean that the person is able to make sense of war. As O’Brien believes, and as numerous other authors throughout the War and Peace Unit believe, war is confusing and meaningless, especially in regard to the vast

amount of senseless death.
The disarray and senseless killing of war is first seen in Muriel Spark’s “The First Year of My Life.” In this short story, the speaker reminiscences back to the last year of World War I.

However, at this time, the speaker was merely a newborn baby. This does not hinder the speaker’s ability to relate ideas and communicate though as the speaker authenticates her newborn self by claiming all babies are born with a sense of omniscience that they eventually lose. By telling the story through the perspective of an infant, the speaker incorporates a childish tone with war which is obviously not supposed to be childish. For example, the speaker relays, “In France the conscripted soldiers leapfrogged over the dead on the advance and littered the fields with limbs and hands, or drowned in the mud.” Through her description of soldiers “leapfrogging” over other dead soldiers, Spark characterizes the death and destruction of war as senseless. Also, by telling the story from the infant’s perspective, Spark juxtaposes the actions typical to a baby with the calamity of war. The speaker says, “On all the world’s fighting fronts the men killed in action or dead of wounds numbered 8,538,315 and the warriors wounded and maimed were 21,219,452. With these figures in mind I sat up in my high chair and banged my spoon on the table.” This juxtaposition downplays the significance of the destructiveness of war and conveys that war makes as much sense as the random actions of newborn

babies.
Also, “The First Long-Range Artillery Shell in Leningrad” by Anna Akhmatova highlights the confusion and unnecessary killing in war. As the poem begins, everyone in Leningrad is going about their daily lives and activities as there is “a rainbow of people rushing around.” However, the people of Leningrad are soon confronted with an unfamiliar noise. The noise sounds very similar to a crack of thunder, but the speaker recognizes that the current conditions would not be very conducive to a thunderstorm. The speaker is in disbelief as it becomes more and more clear that the loud crack had been from an enemy artillery shell. The poem concludes with the speaker being shocked back into reality as the shell brought death to her child. Akhmatova depicts the confusion of war by having the people of Leningrad not knowing what was happening as the bombardment commenced. Also, the taking of the life of an innocent child depicts the brutality of war. The meaningless of the loss of life is further portrayed in Randall Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.” The speaker begins the poem by stating how he was destined to be in the military from birth; he did not really have a choice. As indicated by the title, the speaker becomes the notorious ball turret gunner while in the military. Then, the poem becomes unique as the speaker elaborates on his death as well. The speaker states, “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” This gruesome image showcases how impersonal death is during war. Also, it shows how the lives of people in the military are considered expendable because if someone dies, they are simply cleaned up and replaced by another flak catcher.
Finally, “Of Windows and Doors” by Mohsin Hamid portrays the hysteria and meaningless death in war-torn areas. This short story centers around two young adult lovers presumably in Syria where violent militants are revolting against the government. The first tragedy occurs when the mother of the main male character is killed. Her death is completely senseless and horrifying because all she was doing was looking in her car for an earring she thought she misplaced. Unfortunately, she was hit by “a stray heavy-calibre round passing through the windshield of her car and taking with it a quarter of her head.” People in war-torn cities are unable to safely do things that no one would would bat an eye over in places where there is peace. Later in the story, another civilian is murdered presumably because his beliefs did not coincide with those of the militants who had taken over the city. After the militants checked the main characters’ family and determined they could live, they continued to the next floor up where the neighbors were not so lucky. Simply, for being of the wrong “denomination,” the man of the neighboring household was “held down while his throat was cut” and “his blood appeared as a stain in the corner of [the main characters’ family’s] sitting-room ceiling.” The militants took the dead body and the man’s wife and daughter of the man with them. Similarly to the death of the mother, the death of the man was unnecessary and irrational.
In conclusion, O’Brien’s assertion that war is full of confusion and senseless killing is supported by multiple texts in the War and Peace unit. War creates a sense of delirium for both those directly involved in it and those indirectly involved in it. Often times, civilians are exposed to war and have no idea what is happening like in the case of the people in Stalingrad as the first artillery shell was hurled over them. Also, those directly involved in the war are often viewed as expendable bodies by the governments who are responsible for wars as was the case with the ball turret gunner who was cleaned out of his battle station with a steady stream of water. The death and destruction that occurs as a result of war is meaningless and insensible. Nothing will ever be “taught” by the fighting of wars except for the devastation that they cause.