An individual will no doubt listen to many war stories the horrors of battle throughout one’s life. However there is never a full understanding of war, there is no real reason or moral as to why something occurs during war, why goad men die. Is there even a moral in a war story? One could easily ask and the answer there is no. Tim O’Brien writes several stories throughout his book, The Things they Carried, to show that the war blurs boundaries between what is believed as right and wrong. The brutal stripping of innocence on both sides that cannot be explained, and in multiple moments of disbelief, how the men deal with the guilt and even pain of their feelings by pointing out the irony of a non-existing moral. The line between right and wrong,…show more content… Out on the battlefield, there is no set “society”; it is a dog eat dog world, and the men do what they have to to survive, no longer bound by social convictions. Rat Kiley, for example, deals with his frustration about Curt Lemon’s death by brutally killing and torturing a baby water buffalo. None of the men step in, instead they stand to the side and watch. As a reader it clear that harming an innocent animal is not considered morally “right”, however this shows how the men no longer perceived right and wrong clearly. This represented the men’s innocence being taken from them and their feeling of torment in war. Ted Lavender was fatally shot by the enemy, Sanders jokes that the “moral” of Ted Lavender’s accidental and tragic death is to stay away from drugs. Even though none of the men could really understand why he had to die. In Vietnam there are new sins created that have never existed before and war alters all the soldiers’ definition of morality. Even the purpose of being at war is lost and none of the men quite understand why they are fighting or what they are even fighting for. In war it becomes hard to create a defined line between what is perceived as right and wrong and all motives are questioned. There is no morality in war because death does not discriminate; every man on the battlefield faces the threat of…show more content… Tim’s reflections on storytelling in The Things They Carried reflect a sense that the Vietnam War falls outside of clear moral deliberations and arguments. Meaning that deaths are senseless and random, and there is no way to draw meaningful conclusions from the way people, soldiers, and friends who have died. In the book O'Brien is eventually home with his daughter. Here she asks why there was a war, O'Brien replies that it's because "some people wanted one thing, other people wanted another thing," and all he wanted was to stay alive. It shows how much an individual or child could not understand the war because there is no personal connection compared to how O’Brien perceived war and understood it. This showed his emotion toward the subject and how he could not begin to explain why there really was a war. The Things They Carried challenges the reader to decide whether or not truth exists, whether or not there is such a thing as right and wrong, and finally whether the idea of morality is flexible based on the context that takes place in Vietnam and war
