The Things They Carried- Blog #4 Finish Book

The first thing noticeable in the chapter The Ghost Soldiers is that O’Brien’s fears about the dangers of war are actually more intense than the actual danger itself. O’Brien speaks specifically about being shot and shows the experience to the reader. He says the pain pain of being shot is a survivable pain unlike what you see in movies. O’Brien realizes that the actual pain from being shot is much less frightening than the thought of being shot.

The second time O’Brien was shot the actual pain has worn off and he feels nothing but frustration and hatred towards Bobby Jorgenson, who fails to treat O’Brien’s wound properly. As a result, O’Brien almost dies of shock and then again later of gangrene. The wounds O’Brien suffered changed him. Before in the chapter On The Rainy River O’Brien felt an obligation to do the right thing, now he is left with only a want for revenge.

As a reader I can see that O’Brien’s revenge is also driven by jealousy. He has been removed from the war back to normal where things are much safer. The result of this is he lost the deep connections he had with all the other soldiers. When his platoon comes back to have their week of rest, he sees that Bobby Jorgenson is now more a part of the platoon than he was. O’Brien feels almost as if Bobby has taken his place. This jealousy not only helps to fuel his revenge. We see another transformation between the O’Brien before the war and the O’Brien after the experience of war. He is now jealous that he can’t be the one fighting by his fellow soldiers in his platoon.