Ally Johnson
English 123: Writing Assignment- Major Paper #1
1/23/2015

Burdens of War
The burdens of war go beyond disrupting a person’s life, beyond missing out on years at home with family and friends. Holding the tittle of a soldier delivers immense weight to put on their shoulders. Being a soldier means not only determining their own fate but the outcome of hundreds of lives. Along with this new title comes the beginning of a new life, because when they finish their service, life will never be the same. Once a soldier has ended his or her duty and becomes a veteran, various aspects of time consumed in war will follow them home. Ideas about life before and after war can be identified and interpreted from the poem The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy along with the short story, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Together these texts present the theme, “burdens the war forces upon soldiers are not always left on the battle field”. Both texts show the perspective of veterans who have been consumed by war. Men who know firsthand the burdens a soldier must face and can help show the other sides of war.
The first typical stress a soldier confronts during combat is trying to survive. Although survival is key to war, when looking deeper into everyday life, stress can be more than what meets the eye. Once fire is ceased and it is time to head back to base there is time to think. Hours to contemplate the various outcomes that could have happened throughout that day. Thoughts such as these create nightmares and sleepless nights. Slowly the determination and hope a young soldier started with is wearing away. Now nights include the uncertainty of whether or not they have what it takes to be a soldier. Simply in these cases their doubt doesn’t matter, “they march for the sake of the march” (pg. 356), as O’Brien states. And the meaning behind that statement is that they are doing what they have to do because it is what they are expected to do. No matter how many sleepless nights are tolerated, or how much doubt is taking over, the march continues. Soldiers are expected to do so much and perform to the highest standard of honor for their country, forming high anxiety. This anxiety is followed by fear, not fear of death but the fear of failure. Failing to do their duty could result in the death of a fellow soldier, or an innocent person they had been sent to protect. Forcing a soldier who no longer has any fight left in them makes a very risky and depressing life.
Not only does high anxiety and fear distract them regularly, longing for home fills their minds with fantasies. Throughout the story The Things They Carried a never ending amount of physical items each soldier has to carry are listed. In addition to the physical weight, there are emotions they must psychologically carry with them. Required every day to ponder about what they could have had if being a soldier wasn’t a part of their fate. Draining their souls of all that is happy, filling it with darkness and depression. O’Brien recalls feeling shame after letting his thoughts of his love Martha take over while watching over his men. “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…” (pg. 353). Even a small memory of love from home triggered a vast consequence. Although he lost a man, a greater concern is discovered by O’Brien. After he realizes the thoughts of Martha put him in this position, in order to protect his men O’Brien burned all of Martha’s letters and pictures. From then on the rest of the war for O’Brien was spent alone with nothing to look forward to, any hope of loving Martha was now gone. All she would ever be associated with would be death and blame.
O’Brien found himself taking on a tough role of a proper soldier, following every set of instruction. No matter what the nature or how grueling the mission, commands were to be followed. O’Brien describes how “they were