Death Becomes Them "Trauma of War"

The title, "Trauma of War" could have an interpretative meaning for O’brien’s trauma for the war on life as well as specific trauma of the war in Vietnam. He is a very over analytical, empathetic, guilty, shameful, and compassionate throughout his storytelling. "The Man I Killed" Tim O’brien obsessively emphasizing about a vietnamese boy’s death. We witness guilt and remorse taking over O’brien as he describes this youth’s life being cut off, he had potential to be anything, he could of been a thriving, and successful scholar. The intro was very graphic and horrific describing the boy splattered like," rice krispies".  He continues to using many coping mechanisms in order to ridding himself of the guilty shame that is taunting him, justifying the reasons why it would be better if he is alive, and why he had to die or that he is dead. He is so fixated on his remorse, guilt and shame he attempts to negotiate with himself to justify the young boy’s death. He also questions why he had to shoot this young soldier and what a future he could of had, and what if he had a wife and child he abandoned because he was dead. " He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole."  (Clayton, pg 796). This quote refers to the young boy vietnamese soldiers who got killed by a grenade like rice krispies. This kill got O’Brien to transition from the killer’s perspective to an observer’s perspective as he watched this gruesome encounter with what he may have caused. He gets fixated with the young vietnamese boy and rationalizes the life he cut off. Its clever the way its written out because with this story and this quote in particular he writes it in a third person perspective. Within these perspectives he creates these series of mixed up unconnected fantasies and observations about this little soldier boy he his head that he expresses on paper for us to experience as a witness how it may be like mentally if you would of killed an innocent child with potential for a greater life that you destroyed.  My interpretation of O’Brien’s descriptive explanation of the star-shaped hole in the young soldier boy’s eye is both a means of disengaging with himself and the notion that when you die or the boy’s death the/his body becomes beautiful and mystical. The boy is constantly being reminded during this quote and throughout the short story so the death could be fresh in Tim’s head and ours too. "The Lives of the Death" In this particular short story he uses allot if metafiction to speak as an author and to speak as the experiencer all at the same time.  He describes the kills and deaths that he witnessed and caused throughout the Vietnam War which brought him back reminiscing of the first death  he witnessed which was also his first love.  As he talks about Linda, he also mentions several stories of death throughout the duration of the time he was fighting the Vietnam War. There is another concept that has to do with Linda which, I have learned prior to do reading this, is about rite to passage in other words loss of innocence as he witnessed his first love and first death. Tries to make sense of his life by writing but as he does this is it the author or character or both. O’brien shows obvious actions of his experience of Linda’s death as if it was more important than the deadly tragedies of the deaths of Ted Lavender, Curt Lemon, and Kiowa. This makes sense because unlike the soldiers deaths he witnessed at war, Linda, was completely innocent, having done nothing to instigate the tragedies she faced when dealing with her deadly tumor that lead her to death. " Sometimes I can even see Timmy skating with Linda under the yellow floodlights. I’m young and happy. I’ll never die. I’m skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story." (Clayton, pg 802). The first experience O’Brien had witnessing one of his fellow soldiers die provoked the trauma he experienced,  when he was nine, his first death, Linda who was defeated by a brain tumor, which happened to be his first love. This experience of death when he was nine helped him develop the right kind of coping tools of life to deal with the future deaths of his fellow soldiers during the war. Its quite a horrific situations the character Tim had experienced during the war and when he was young. The character and, maybe even the author, gives implications through this quotation where he has a need for telling these stories of his tragic memories as he relives it, because in his perspective it almost like he brings these ghosts back to life as if they never died in the first place making them immortal, they are always by your side in his head, at least.   Re: Death Becomes Them "Trauma of War" by Travis Bruce - Saturday, November 3, 2012, 09:44 PM   Alissa, Your analysis of "The Man I Killed" is telling. I think oftentimes what is not portrayed is the remorse many veterans feel after serving their time. While death in times of War is justified, it definitely changes the human condition. The effect is devastating to those in combat and O'Brien shows this. Keep up the insightful analysis! Re: Death Becomes Them "Trauma of War" by Tara Hall - Saturday, November 3, 2012, 11:05 PM   Very detailed analysis. I like how you wrote Tim experienced war when he was young with losing Linda. Very insightful