Death In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

When you think of death, what thoughts come to mind? Does it make you sad? Do you wish it didn’t exist? Have you ever actually seen death? When fighting in war, soldiers experience things that those who never fight don’t. War is both emotionally and physically tolling, and this can change a soldier’s mentality on death. Death is seen time and time again by the eyes of soldiers, and this may lead to them viewing death as something with less worth than those not in a war. Because of the events soldier's experience and see, their perception of death/killing is different from those who are not in war.
In war, soldiers may become unapologetic for killing, or they may not feel sorry when they see death. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien portrays how soldiers view …show more content…
Rat Kiley purposely hurts a baby water buffalo until it suffers and dies. “He stepped back and shot it through the right front knee. The animal did not make a sound. It went down hard, then got up again, and Rat took careful aim and shot off an ear. He shot it in the hindquarters and in the little hump at its back. He shot it twice in the flanks. It wasn’t to kill; it was to hurt. He put the rifle muzzle up against the mouth and shot the mouth away” (79). Rat’s perception of death has become insensitive, and he causes pain to the animal in a way that would bother someone who isn’t in war. The way he shows his emotions is unordinary. However, the rest of the platoon shows little remorse when seeing Rat do this to the young animal. “Nobody said much. The whole platoon stood their watching, feeling all kinds of things, but there wasn’t a great deal of pity for the baby water buffalo” (79). The soldiers have become almost numb to seeing death and the wounding of other living beings. They don’t see incidents like; in this case killing a baby water buffalo, the same as

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