by Matthew Baker

What does it mean to be a soldier? Does it mean losing oneself in the war that you are fighting? Or could it potentially be giving up your life to fight for a noble cause? It can be hard to actually distinguish what being a soldier is unless a person has first-hand experience in the matter. Regardless of the person they were before they joined the armed forces, soldiers, when faced with brutality and misfortune, ultimately change their perspective towards people and the world. It could be how they view their best friends, or their allies, or simply not finding a purpose after their experience of war. Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, makes these changes in mindset clear throughout his novel.

War can be a brutal experience, making the everyday life of a soldier highly stressful and forcing them to be alert at all times. That being said, it would be a difficult adjustment going from a highly dangerous war zone where a person can be surrounded by booby traps and hostile enemies, having no idea where they are, to the peaceful suburban and urban areas where they can finally let their guards down. The adjustment can be hard to shake and would take a while to get used to, but what if it was unbearable to actually submit to the tasks of everyday life? The main goal of a soldier is to protect their country and their allies, constantly having a set goal and a chain of objectives to complete on a daily basis. They do not have time to daydream or let their mind wander like the common man does. They are constantly focused on surviving and winning the war. But wars can end just as abruptly as they can start, and soldiers are not always prepared to come back to the reality of the workplace. Their perspectives have changed and it is not a sudden switchover. A soldier could have had dreams of getting married or opening a business, but when they come back it can be hard to remember what that feeling was like. For example, the chapters “Speaking of Courage” and “Notes” perfectly describe the soldier who has no purpose after the war. The soldier’s name is Norman Bowker, a man who can remember the war and sentimental feelings of before the war, but can find no purpose when he comes home. He eventually commits suicide for this exact reason (O’Brien 149). The man has many things to say about the war and about his valor, but finds no reason to actually say it. The twisted nature of war has scrambled his mind and turned him into a timid man who seeks nothing in this world. The tragic events that people see in war change their perspective about everything. Bowker writes in a letter to O’Brien, “The thing is, there’s no place to go. Not just in this lousy town. In general. It’s almost like I got killed over in ‘Nam… Hard to describe” (150). War is deadly enough to kill a man while he still lives. The war has changed Bowker’s perspective of life for the worse.

Another example of a change for the worse is getting addicted to the rush of war. This is similar to Bowker’s experience, but he just liked the purpose of war. It is easy to get caught up in the adrenaline of fighting the war that a person could never want to lose that feeling. For example, Mary Anne, a character in The Things They Carried, loses her yearning to go back to the civilized United States and wanders off into the jungle of Vietnam, never to be found (110). This is just another example of how a person’s perspective can drastically change due to the occurrence of war. A sweet, naïve girl can become an adrenaline junkie who has no attachments to life and would be willing to give it up to be in solitude defending herself (110). War can tear people apart and crush them, but it can also have the opposite effect; war can change people’s perspectives towards their old and new friends, and their fellow soldiers.

The bonds between soldiers are strengthened to an extreme degree when it comes to war. These people could be of any ethnicity or any personality, but a soldier will protect his fellow soldier with his life in any circumstance. Soldiers become attached to each other, constantly seeing the same people over and over again. They would risk anything to save them and would not even hesitate to do so. And in losing a fellow soldier, not just one person gets enraged, the whole platoon does. In The Things They Carried, Tim Lavender, one of the soldiers, dies. The rest of his platoon avenges their fellow comrade by destroying a city; “After the chopper took Lavender away, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross led his men into the village of Than Khe. They burned everything. They shot the chickens and dogs, they trashed the village well, they called in artillery and watched the wreckage” (15). People learn to appreciate the ones that look after them, and it is ultimately a different scenario than in a non-warzone. The bonds that these soldiers build are not like any other. They surpass the bonds of best friends because they can talk about anything without judgment. Soldiers can discuss any matter, even the scenario of one of them dying or getting hurt and what they would do about it. This happens in the chapter “Friends” in The Things They Carried. Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk make an agreement to find a way to end each other’s lives if the circumstances became too extreme, such as losing a limb (62). The soldiers are able to talk about anything with each other, even though they might not have known each other for very long. It is just a different perspective and appreciation that other people do not have.

The way a person loves changes when they are fighting in a war. A soldier can be thousands of miles away from the one that they love, having no communication or knowledge of what they are up to. It is just a mutual trust issue where you have to believe that both parties are faithful to one another. Besides that though, war can make someone cherish a person beyond belief. It could be a relic or talisman given to you by that one you have your eye on, or even as simple as letters, full of vague interpretations and faulty understanding, possibly leading to a message that is not really there. It does not even need to be a bond between two people, it could just be a gleam of hope, fueling your fantasies that might eventually lead to something real. These fantasies sometimes clog a soldier’s judgment, which can make them choose what is most important to them.

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross holds onto Martha’s letters like a child holds onto his mother’s hand. His mind wanders when he reads these letters, imagining false scenarios of them falling in love and hoping that Martha is still a virgin, ultimately saving herself for Cross (2). Cross’s perspective is altered from the reality of things, seeing as Martha had no romantic interest in him. War makes soldiers desperate when it comes to what is most important, feeding their minds with false memories and false hope just to help them survive. Lives can be lost if a soldier’s priorities are skewed. Cross, while on a dangerous mission, daydreams about Martha, hoping that someday she would love him. This distraction causes Tim Lavender’s death. Cross is not paying attention, and he loses an ally. As O’Brien says, “He loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (16). After this event, Cross changes his priorities from the love that he can never obtain to protecting his platoon. Cross’s perspective changes into one of a true soldier, protecting his men always being his top priority. Cross takes his role more seriously because he never wants to lose another soldier to laxity (24). Cross disposes of the letters from Martha by burning them in a fire, slowly burning the false hope of love that was inside him (22). Cross understands that his soldiers are more important to him than any girl could be at that time. His fellow soldiers are the ones that are most important and he finds that out in a tragic way. Nevertheless, his priorities and perspective change to help protect the ones that surround him: his allies. Soldiers learn to protect each other because ultimately they are protecting themselves.

War changes people’s perspective on life, for better or for worse. It can make soldiers appreciate the little things more and make them a better person, or it can break them down into nothing, eventually making them lost in a dark void. Soldiers build unbreakable bonds with their brothers-in-arms, ones that will never be as strong as them, or it can end in death. Either way, the perspective of soldiers changes inevitably when they go into war.