The narrator of the story "The Ghost Soldiers" says, "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." What might he mean by this?
Discuss O'Brien's war injuries and want he wants revenge on Bobby Jorgenson.
Examine O'Brien's reaction to being reassigned away from the heat of battle and what happens when the men from Alpha Company return to base.
Discuss O'Brien's meeting with Jorgenson and O'Brien's and Azar's plan for revenge.
How has O'Brien changed throughout the war?
What Tim means by seeing things you don’t normally see when you're scared, he means that when one is scared and their adrenaline kicks in they look at things differently. When Tim thinks he is going to die after getting shot the second time, he looks at things from a survival standpoint. He gets mad at Bobby Jorgenson for not helping him, he no longer sees Jorgenson as a medic, or a person rather, he sees Jorgenson as a means of survival. After getting gangrene from his wounds and being the butt of his platoons jokes, Tim wants revenge on Jorgenson for not giving him the attention he needed. Tim is later reassigned due to a different platoon and wants nothing but revenge on Jorgenson, because he believes that Jorgenson is the reason everything was going wrong in his life. Eventually Tim does meet up with his old platoon and then exacts his revenge with a man named Azar. Azar is not a good man and wants nothing more than to torment others. Together Azar and Tim attempt to pull an elaborate prank on Jorgenson, which ends up with Tim getting kicked in the head by Azar, and Tim and Jorgenson getting on good terms again. This really shows how Tim has changed from not agreeing with the war, to actually feeling as if he was part of the war machine when he is attempting to scare Jorgenson.
ReplyDeleteThe authour means that when you are truly frightened you see every little detail in a new light because in your scared stat of mind, anything can and will hurt you. For once in your life you are the scared and mindless animal being hunted, you see yourself as tiny as an insect and the fear of seeing a foot inches away from crushing you. You see all the beauty in the world, yet at the same time see all the ugliness of the world.
ReplyDeleteThis idea helps the reader understand O'Brien's need for revenge on Jorgenson. O'Brien was at the fear level that the authour was talking about. When someone is that fearful there is only one way of not letting that fear destroy you. It is to focus on one thing and put your full effort into it. O'Brien's focus was to find some way to get back at Jorgenson for making him go to that depth of fear.
O'Brien first reacted in disbelief to being reassigned away from his company. He did not want to leave them because he felt like he was being left behind from his family and that he was letting them all down. When Alpha Company came to his base he was, at first, overjoyed at being reunited with his family that he had be torn apart from. When Alpha Company actually came, O'Brien felt sadden because he was now an outsider. He was no longer apart of the close knit family. He would always be apart of the family but never in the same way again. When it came time to talk to Jorgenson, O'Brien was hoping to find some way to forgive him but Jorgenson said all the words that O'Brien did not want to hear. Worst of all, Jorgenson had become part of the family and O'Brien was now cast out. This prompted O'Brien to get the aid of Azar to get revenge on Jorgenson. O'Brien wanted to make Jorgenson feel the level of fear that he had experienced. Nearly halfway through the plan, O'Brien wanted to call of the rest of the plan as he saw what he was doing to Jorgenson. He realized that even though he had felt that fear and wanted revenge, he did not want anyone to feel the fear he did. But Azar convinced O'Brien to continue on and O'Brien got his bitter sweet revenge on Jorgenson. This shows how O'Brien changed throughout the war because at the beginning of the war, O'Brien was a young kid that was always goof around and was never thinking about where he was or what he was doing but by the end he was more focused and more matured.
Like the quote mentions, when you are afraid, everything around you seems a threat and a danger, especially at night which is when this scene took place. When one is put in a situation full of fear, one’s imagination tends to whip up crazy, unlikely scenarios. This leads to panic and a sense that you cannot control your surroundings.
ReplyDeleteO’Brien had always been confident in Rat Kiley’s ability as a medic. He had seen him in action when O’Brien had been previously shot. When they got a new medic, the men said he was “green” meaning he was new and inexperienced, and also a little bit afraid. Because of his fear, Jorgenson took so long in treating O’Brien when he was badly injured during combat that O’Brien went into shock. This was a traumatic situation for O’Brien and one that he had since hated Jorgenson for letting him experience. O’Brien was later made fun of because of situations surrounding his injury resulting in O’Brien wanting revenge upon Jorgenson.
When the men he use to serve with from Alpha Company come through the base where O’Brien was reassigned after his injury, he thinks the camaraderie will be just as it once was. However, he soon realizes that through the passing of time he has become more of an outsider than someone within the inner circle. He sees that he is merely an acquaintance and the bond they once had is now something of the past.
O’Brien, while still holding onto his plan for revenge against Jorgenson, seeks the assistance of another comrade to instill fear into him. Following his success of revenge, O’Brien and Jorgenson meet and clear things up. While Jorgenson seemed to feel O’Brien’s and Azar’s motive was childish, O’Brien realizes just how much he has changed for the worse and how much he is shamed because of it causing emotionless “amends”.
Tim gets shot twice during his time in Vietnam. The first time, Rat Kiley is there to supply aid for him. Tim was sent away to recover. Days later Rat Kiley was wounded and shipped to Japan. The company gained a new medic, Bobby Jorgenson. When Time gets shot the second time, Jorgenson was frightened and hesitant which left him too scared to crawl over to Tim's rescue. Tim in the meantime nearly died of shock. His wound wasn't treated as it should have been and he ended up contracting gangrene. Tim, needless to say, was very upset with Jorgenson being a coward and thought of his act to be selfish for his job.
ReplyDeleteAfter Tim's release from the hospital, he got transferred to the battalion supply section. Here you weren't required to fight. Tim was now safe from any furthermore injuries but he missed the front. During his time working at the supply section, he thinks about nothing more than how to get revenge on Bobby Jorgenson. When the Alpha Company comes to the supply section, Tim asks where Bobby is. He finds out that he is no longer the medic, but instead he is now "one of them". Jorgenson confronts Tim and apologizes for not saving him but it makes Tim feel anything but better; instead he feels betrayed. Tim still wants revenge and he plans to do so by teaming up with Azar. The two set off some flares in front of Jorgenson to scare him off. Tim feels after a few pranks that that was enough to make Jorgenson's life feel threatened as he did when he was shot the second time. Contrary to what Tim said, Azar kept on with the pranks. They hooked up a white sandbag to a pulley to make it appear as a ghost. Tim shoots the bag to reveal it's just a sandbag. Azar gets upset with Tim for ruining his prank and kicks him in the head. Jorgenson runs over to treat Tim's head wound and now the two of them feel closer than ever.
O'Brien is humiliated as a result of Bobby Jorgenson's failures as a battle doctor. He has gangrene in a very undignified place and has to live with it for some time after. That just adds insult to injury. He had been hurt in the battle, and was laying on the ground in unimaginable pain, going through shock, and screaming for the doctor, who was ignoring him. He felt betrayed. He had relied on the doctor, and had been let down. Hard. So his bitterness is understandable. But there were other effects that Jorgenson's mistakes caused. Because O'Brien developed gangrene, he was not healthy enough to continue on with the ragtag group of soldiers he'd been traveling with. They had been a close-knit group. When he was taken away from them to recover his health, he adapted to the life of comfort in the military compound he stayed at. Later on, he reunited with his old group at that compound. They were all merry, but O'Brien could sense that their was a separation between his comfortable new life and their difficult life of trekking and battling and camping under the stars. O'Brien wants his friends back, but it cannot ever be the same. For this, and for his humiliation, he wants to hurt Bobby Jorgenson. He later on realizes after the revenge prank that it really isn't Bobby's fault. He was young and inexperienced and scared, just as O'Brien had been.
ReplyDeleteWhen Tim O'Brien said that when you are scared you see things differently, he meant that when you are panicked you look at things from a different point of view. Most of the time it is more from a survival standpoint. O'Brien wanted revenge on Bobby Jorgenson when he didn't help him in his time of need. O'Brien was shot in battle and Jorgenson was too scared and hesitated in helping him. His wound was not treated as it should have been, and because of this he developed gangrene. O'Brien wanted revenge on Jorgenson for not giving him the attention that he needed. Jorgenson's mistakes caused more than just this, however. O'Brien was not healthy enough to stay with his friends he had been traveling with. Instead, he was sent to a military compound until he was healthier. When he was sent back, everyone was happy but it wasn't the same as before and O'Brien felt separated from the group. He had been living in complete comfort while all of their lives were hard. O'Brien hated Jorgenson even more for what he had done to his life! He wanted him to feel the same panic and fear that Jorgenson made him feel after he was shot. O'Brien and Azar snuck out when Jorgenson was on guard duty and triggered tiny explosions. They enjoyed watching Jorgenson fail to stay calm, but soon after an incident between O'Brien and Azar, Jorgenson came to help O'Brien. Soon after this O'Brien realized how dumb all of his feelings of hate towards Jorgenson were and they both moved on. O'Brien decides that he has changed for the worse throughout the war, and is ashamed of it.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are fear-stricken, logic holds little standing. You focus on everything out of paranoia, as if something as mere as the movement of a shadow will swallow you whole. Senses almost seem to heighten; the chill up your spine brings a certain coolness to the world, things your sane mind thought unnecessary before stick out, and what could be the sound of your own heartbeat could just as easily be footsteps in the distance. You seek threats (or any excuse for one) and take the defense, and once the feeling has passed you tend to feel more miserable and tiny than ever before.
ReplyDeleteO'Brien's aim is for Jorgenson to feel this. He wants revenge for the poor job the newly-deployed medic did for him on the battlefield, be that for nearly allowing him to die from shock and for the pain and humility he suffers for the bullet that scarred his bottom. The notion that Jorgenson has become "one of the guys" ignites a certain fury in him, as well. Whereas he was reassigned for healing, his friends have replaced him with a more seasoned Jorgenson. For the boy being someone who wronged him, the feeling is an almost betrayal.
The war has hardened O'Brien. It shaped the boy once scared and disgusted by war to flourish in it: to become mean. He joins with Azar to scare Jorgenson beyond belief, and torments him willingly. However, we also see that the O'Brien from his past is not fully gone. He realises enough is enough, even if Azar pushes him to continue the affair. That alone speaks for the war: you cannot simply remove yourself from it. That fact, I believe, scares O'Brien just as much.
What the narrator of "The Ghost Soldiers" is trying to say is that when you fear most things are put into perspective. A realization hits where a person understands that they're being threatened or that it could be the end of their life. When a person is under total control of fear, sometimes they do everything they can to ignore the situation. Instead of focusing on what's actually happening to them they try to take in everything that surrounds them. Another reason could be since they realized it could be their last day , it seems necessary to remember everything that goes on around them.
ReplyDeleteThe worst part about O'Brien's injuries were probably the placement. It was almost embarrassing to be shot leaving him unable to even sit down. Although the placement of his wound wasn't really his biggest issue with Jorgenson. Mainly that O'Brien knew he had to be treated for shock yet Jorgenson was still in shock himself that he wasn't much help to O'Brien. But even then I felt that O'Brien was just up set that he was taken out of the fighting, not that Jorgenson had cold feet.
The worst part about being taken out of battle was O'Brien lost the connection he had with his comrades. They all felt what the other one felt and they were so close even though some didn't agree with others. Being taken away from that is like moving away from your best friend and being separated by hundreds of miles. Realizing he was leaving his comrades was probably the hardest part for O'Brien which was why he didn't react so well as to leaving.
Although O'Brien wanted nothing more than for Jorgenson to suffer the way he did, deep down O'Brien knew it wasn't the right thing to do. The plan was only meant to scare Jorgenson, O'Brien started to get cold feet and wanted to back out or at least lighten up the strategy. The only reason O'Brien started to back off was because Jorgenson tried his hardest to earn forgiveness from him. Even though O'Brien recognized the attempt he still gabbed Azar and asked for his assistance during the plan.
O'Brien changed throughout the war by actually looking beyond his liberal views. He was given a full view of death, fear, and what its like to actually need survival skills. O'Brien took more compassion for those he did not know. He was given a different out look on life for others.
During the course of the war Tim O’Brien gets shot twice, one wound being much more traumatic than the other. The first time he is shot in the side, and as soon as he falls O’Brien describes how the Alpha Company medic Rat Kiley was there in a flash quickly treating him even at the risk of his own life during battle. Tim is deeply grateful for Rat Kileys quick and effective actions leaving Tim able to say that getting shot was not all that bad. The second time however is a completely different story. While Tim had been sent off to heal for a short time from his bullet wound Rat Keily goes crazy and eventually shots his foot allowing him to escape the battle front. He is then taken to Japan for treatment. None of the soldiers had blamed him but this of course meant that the team would need another medic; Bobby Jorgenson was then introduced as a young, scared military medic new to the war. Bobby was certainly no Rat Kiley and Tim would soon find this out the hard way. After joining the Alpha Company once more Tim is eventually shot in battle for a second time, the difference, however, is no one had come to save him. Bobby Jorgenson had been too scared to get to O’Brien in the midst of the battle causing him to nearly die from shock. This of course left Tim very bitter and when he was taken away to a supply base to heal all he could think of is how he would get Bobby back for what he did. Not too long later the Alpha Company arrives at the same base and Tim instantly seeks out Jorgenson to get his revenge. He soon comes up with the idea to scare Bobby when he is on night patrol, but he can’t do it alone so he asks the one soldier that can’t say no to a prank; Azar, for his help, and together the two set traps making sounds in the woods by pulling on strings, lighting flares and setting smoke grenades off beside the unsuspecting Bobby Jorgenson. During the middle of the men’s prank Tim notices his transformation from being a kind and caring soldier at the beginning of the war to becoming a man set on revenge and rough lessons. He soon finishes his prank coming up to Bobby announcing that the two were then even and the tension between the two dies.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the main points O'brien is trying to say though this book is that fear causes a person to see the world differently. You become paranoid. All of a sudden everything becomes a threat to you and you are always watching your back. Things that you normally wouldn't worry about start to scare you. When it is dark and silent, that is when it is worst. You can't talk to people to comfort you and your thoughts eat away at you. Everything is frightening. Everything is a threat waiting to attack you in the dark and no one would know or be able to help you.
ReplyDeleteThat fear can also cause you to behave differently. When O'Brien he experiences his worst fear. He could and have died when the medic, Jorgenson, got was so frightened he did not do his job. When he finally did get to O'Brien he was so nervous he didn't know what to do. His fear caused him to freeze. This caused O'Brien to experience so much fear that wanted revenge. He changed into a mean person. He couldn't think like he used to. Separation from his unit made it worse because he felt detached from the other soldiers and didn't feel like he belonged anymore. I think this caused a different kind of fear. This made him even angrier with Jorgenson. After he teamed up with Azar to scare Jorgenson he began to realize that he had changed into a mean person. He was not the nice thoughtful person he had been. I think this ability to recognize the changes and correct your behavior is what separates the people who return from the war and take up a "normal" life from those that never find their way back to who they where before the war.
What the narrator means by this quote is that a person's mind is put into a whole new world, a whole new perspective when going through shock. In this case, shock isn't just being surprised when everyone jumps out at your surprise birthday party. Shock is a condition which occurs when a person suffers a serious injury and loses large amounts of blood. During shock, the body literally begins to shut down while you are conscious. When O'Brien is shot, he is extremely scared, panics, and he underwent shock. When this happens, his mind is put into a whole new world and perspective because of the shock, and he sees things he usually doesn't.
ReplyDeleteO'Brien is shot twice during the war. He wants revenge on Jorgenson because the second time O'Brien was shot, Jorgenson was the person who attempted to help O'Brien and fix his wounds. But, Jorgenson was just as scared and inexperienced as O'Brien, and was not able to sufficiently treat O'Brien's wounds. O'Brien is therefore forced to leave the war and recover for some time at a medical facility, for which he blames Jorgenson. When Alpha company returns, O'Brien's main goal is to try and find Jorgenson. When O'Brien finds him, Jorgenson apologizes and is very remorseful.
O'Brien and Azar devise a plan to scare Jorgenson while he serves night-duty. They twitch bushes and move sandbags to imitate enemies moving through the brush, then pop off multiple flares in an attempt to scare Jorgenson as revenge. O'Brien changes from a soft, kind man to a tough mean man throughout the war.
During the war, O'Brien was shot twice. The first time, Rat Kiley was quick to his rescue and he recovered quickly. The second time however, Rat Kiley was not there to rescue him. There was a new medic, Bobby Jorgenson. When O'Brien was shot, Jorgenson was hesitant and scared. Because of Jorgenson's hesitation, O'Brien's mind went into a state of shock. During this time, he looks around at everything. Every pebble, every person, every blade of grass, just because he thought that it might be the end. He was truly afraid, and it made him see the real world.
ReplyDeleteAfter this injury, O'Brien is sent away from battle to recover and anger consumes him. He wants nothing more than for Jorgenson to feel the kind of pain he felt. He wanted revenge. When his old friends return to base, the first thing O'Brien asked was "Where is Jorgenson?". When O'Brien and Jorgenson finally reunite, Jorgenson tells O"Brien he really regrets that night, and he still has nightmares about it. Not only does O"Brien not forgive Jorgenson, he became even angrier because he realizes he is no longer in the inner circle- Jorgenson is.
After the talk with Jorgenson, O:Brien seeks help from Azar to carry out his revenge. They decide to try and scare Jorgenson while he serves night-duty. Even before they carried out the plan, O'Brien was having second thoughts. He decided to go through with it anyways, and when Jorgenson figured out what was happening, they decided they were even. Before the war started, O'Brien was a kind, young man but war turned him into a ruthless, tough man.
The most striking thing about The Things They Carried is seeing O'Brien's transformation from the beginning of the war to the end of the war, When he is drafted, O'Brien is so overcome by fear that he almost turns his back on his country and flees to Canada. The reader gets complete insight on his feelings during the six-day period of time where O'Brien searches for every excuse to not fight in Vietnam. He claims he is too smart and too soft to be a soldier. He feels empathy for those men who were willing to lay down their lives, but is convinced he could not. Fear makes him believe that he is incapable of fighting and destined for death.
ReplyDeleteBecause of his experience, you think that of any man in the Alpha Company, O'Brien would be the most sensitive to Bobby Jorgenson's fear. Instead, O'Brien craves revenge. He wants to reduce Jorgenson down to the sniveling puddle of fear that O'Brien was before he even became a soldier. This shows an immense change in personality, because O'Brien depicts himself as one of the soldiers who clings to some morality. Now, he wants cruel revenge. However, it's not the change in personality that O'Brien shows that is the most interesting; it's what doesn't change. Even while committing the act of revenge on Jorgenson, O'Brien feels empathy for him. He can taste the same fear and relate to the horror. O'Brien's empathy is his strongest trait. It is the reason why he can forgive Jorgenson and why he can write from the point of view of others. This part of him remains, despite the life-altering effects of the war.
Every day, we humans overlook every tiny detail that goes into our surroundings. Our minds are in a million different places, and miniscule details are overlooked. But when we are in a state of extreme fear, our senses become heightened and we view the world differently. We notice everything, because our minds are consumed with only one thing: terror.
ReplyDeleteO’Brien had been shot twice while in Vietnam. The first shot was cared for by his friend Rat Kiley, trained and professional. Kiley knew exactly what to do and was calm and quick while doing so. O’Brien returned to the fighting nearly a month later. When O’Brien is shot for a second time, this time cared for by the timid newbie, Bobby Jorgenson, his wound is not so easily brushed away. Jorgenson did not take the proper measures to care for O’Brien, leaving him almost dead by the time Jorgenson finally got around to treating him. The late treatment plus the placement of the wound left O’Brien unable to re-join his friends in combat.
On being shot, O’Brien writes “All I know is, you shouldn’t feel embarrassed. Humiliation shouldn’t be part of it.” (pg. 182). However, O’Brien is somewhat ashamed of his injury because it leaves him unable to sit, walk, and sleep comfortably. Humiliation is what drives O’Brien into revenge; he wants Jorgenson to feel what he felt. Even though, O’Brien knows that Jorgenson was just as terrified as he was when O’Brien was shot, the shame he feels because of the mistreatment of his injury takes over.
O’Brien’s reaction to being reassigned away from combat and his friends is a feeling I can personally relate to. For the past two years, I have marched with our high school marching band. However this year, I am a drum major of the band, rather than marching in the band. I think this is how O’Brien felt when he was assigned to the Headquarters. You don’t quite fit in the way you once did. Everyone is still your friend, sure, but you’re not on the same level. This distant feeling is amplified even more for O’Brien when the man he detests becomes closer with his old friends. We can see this through the conversation Sanders has with O’Brien.
“’I hate to say this, man, but you’re out of touch. Jorgenson- he’s with us now.’
‘And I’m not?’
Sanders looked at me for a moment.
‘No,’ he said, ‘I guess you’re not’” (pg. 188).
Later on the page, O’Brien writes “A funny thing, but I felt betrayed”
O’Brien changes throughout the war by becoming a more hardened version of himself. I think one of the main reasons O’Brien became a meaner person was a sort-of defense mechanism. He hardens himself up to protect himself from the pain of watching your friends die. Any traumatizing situations will make you put up emotional barriers to protect yourself. O’Brien’s barriers were just more upfront than other soldiers’ were.
The narrator means that when you’re in fear everything is different compared to how you would see it when you’re not afraid. After O'Brien was shot, Jorgenson didn't treat him for shock when he needed to be and during that time, O'Brien became panic stricken and started to think differently, which led to him wanting revenge on Jorgenson. After O'Brien was reassigned, he had more breaks and a less stressful period of time. When Alpha Company went to the base where O'Brien was, he felt disconnected from the men that he was once close to, which made him even angrier that Jorgenson didn't treat him. O'Brien wanted to scare Jorgenson and so he used Azar to scare Jorgenson to the bone. After Jorgenson got scared by O'Brien, they were on good terms since they understand each other. Throughout the war, O'Brien changed from being very fearful in the beginning to enjoy being with the group of guys that he was with and in the end, he became very mean to try to protect himself.
ReplyDelete"When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." I think that the narrator means that your mind sharpens, that you notice everything around you and you see things differently, for better or for worse. During the war, O'Brien is shot twice. Once in his side, and once in his backside. The first time he is treated, his friend Rat Kiley takes care of him. The second time, a new medic is in charge and does a poor job of coming to O'Brien's rescue as well as treating him. The new medic's name was Bobby Jorgenson. O'Brien wants revenge on Jorgenson because he did such a bad job taking care of him when he was injured. When O'Brien is reassigned away from the heat of the battle, it is somewhat relaxing at first, but he soon starts to miss all of the fighting and action. When the men from Alpha Company return to base, O'Brien feels an awkward sense of separation between all of his old buddies and himself because he is no longer one of them, and he misses the feeling of being part of the pack. When O'Brien learns that Jorgenson is now part of his old friend group, it only fuels his hatred for him even more. When they finally talk, Jorgenson apologizes to him, but now O'Brien "hated him for making me stop hate him." (pg.200) Then O'Brien comes up with a plan. Its perfectly normal that when you are on night watch, your mind starts playing tricks on you. You think you see and hear things that really aren't there. O'Brien knows that that night is Jorgenson's turn on night watch, so he convinces his comrade Azar to help pull a prank on Jorgenson. During his watch, they rattle cans and set off flares and even create a ghost out of a sandbag that they painted white. Eventually, Jorgenson guesses that it was O'Brien behind all of the tricks, and they end up forgiving each other and calling it even. Throughout the war, O'Brien becomes a changed man. That night when him and Azar are playing tricks on Jorgenson, a part of O'Brien becomes cold, and takes over his entire being. He knows that he is acting cruel, but that doesn't matter to him in that moment, because he's no longer himself. He's not the same man that he was when he came to Vietnam.
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ReplyDeleteIn the chapter The Ghost Soldiers, the narrator says, "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." What he means by this statement is that, when a person is fearing for their life they see things differently, all of their senses work faster and become more sensitive. This is a trait that humans have developed that aids in survival. O’Brien was having this happen to him after he was shot. He viewed all the small details that no one would ever care about because he had to focus on something to avoid slipping away. This is why he paid such close attention to the grass and the things and people around him. This put Jorgenson as the center of O’Brien’s world. Jorgenson was O’Brien’s only lifeline and because Jorgenson was to scared to act quickly O’Brien developed a severe hatred toward him.
ReplyDeleteIn the Ghost Stories the quote means that when someone is extremely afraid, more so than they ever have been, you start going crazy. Your imagination kicks in and you could think you are about to die. If that is the case your mind starts filling with all these different thoughts and you start thinking about the truly important things because they might be your last thoughts ever. You realize things that normally wouldn’t cross your mind on a normal day.
ReplyDeleteDuring the war O’Brien was shot twice. The first time he had a well experienced medic named Rat Kiley to aid him and his gunshot wound. The second time around a new medic had just been hired named Bobby Jorgenson. Bobby was very inexperienced and as soon as O’Brien became wounded he was too afraid to go help him and do his job. Once he gained the bravery to go help, O’Brien had already gone into shock and almost died from waiting in pain on the ground during battle for so long. When Jorgenson finally treated him, he didn’t realize he was supposed to treat O’Brien for shock which made things even worse. Due to O’Brien’s injury he gets reassigned to a more peaceful and relaxing environment. At first he enjoys the stillness and less stress this job offers. Soon, his old Alpha Company returns to the base, and O’Brien misses and longs for the close bond he had with everyone apart of his old Company. They were all so close and he misses the adventures with them and the thrill and adrenaline they would all share. He soon realized he was no longer one of them which made him depressed.
When O’brien encounters Jorgenson he gives him the cold shoulder and doesn’t except his apology. He decides he wants revenge and seeks out the victorious Azar. Together they plan a scheme of revenge and try to make Jorgenson feel the same as O’Brien had laying in the field wounded in pain. After he seeks his revenge O’Brien realizes how much he has changed and how mean and cruel he has become since his journey at the beginning of Vietnam.
The quote above explains that fear is a wake up call. It makes a person face the gravity of a situation and the fragility of their lives. It causes a person to truly understand the term mortality. This sudden "awakening" to their own vulnerability causes them to grasp at the images of the world they have before them. Not only are they looking for ways out and danger, but they also want to experience and take in everything possible in case their fears were to become reality.
ReplyDeleteO' Brean's war injuries are the shame of his career as a soldier. Even though he explains that they are suppose to be seen as a thing of honor, O' Brien can only find embarrassment. This is largely due to Bobby Jorgenson who treated his second injury when he was shot in the butt. The improper and delayed care of Bobby not only almost killed O' Brien, but it also left him with a rotting wound and caused him to be reassigned off the battlefield. This creates a wrath inside Brian who now hungers for revenge against Bobby for his amateur care. O' Brien only gets angrier as the Alpha Company returns and not only sticks up for Bobby but distances themselves from O' Brien. Since O' Brien is no longer on the field he's no longer treated like their brother and as O' Brien watches Bobby and his friends converse and have fun he starts to want more revenge.
Bobby does try to apologize to O' Brien, explaining how sorry he felt for his muddled job and how he had wanted to treat his wound sooner but was too scared. O' Brien then becomes conflicted about his revenge but decides to anyway by playing a prank on Bobby with the help of Azar. It seems like O' Brien was the one who was hurt in the end though. Bobby was spooked a little by their ghost tricks but O' Brien was ridiculed and pitied by Azar who compares him to that of a has been soldier. Throughout the war, O' Brien has become increasingly more hardened and less emotional. He got used to the dead bodies and the harshness of the war. He became less of a scholar and more of a survivor, depending on his instincts to get him through the day. This meant that his thoughts were not as rational as well, and his decisions were also based on instincts. War reduced O' Brien from a educated man with a scholarly future to a bruised soldier enfolded by the anger of war events.
The quote from "The Ghost Soldiers" means that people can just go crazy from being scared and afraid. Which goes back to the story in which Rat Kiley can't take being scared all the time anymore and shoots himself in the foot just to get out. Tim O'Brien got shot twice but the worse one by far was when he got shot in the butt and he got mediocre treatment from Jorgensen because Jorgensen never treated O'Brien for shock and also Jorgensen's poor patch job made O'Brien lose some of his rear because it began to rot away. When O'Brien is reassigned from the heat of the battle he seems to feel all alone and begins to miss his platoon. When the men from O'Brien's platoon return to the base that O'Brien is stationed everything seemed to be like old times until Tim brings up Jorgensen and everyone tells Tim that he is a sorry piece of work. O'Brien finally meets up with Jorgensen and they talk about what happened but not in a real friendly way. O'brien doesn't forgive Jorgensen for what he has done to him so he starts to set up plans for revenge with his old friend Azar. The plan consisted of scaring Jorgensen while he was on night patrol with flares, flying sand bags, and rope with ammo boxes attached to them. After this has all happened he starts to miss the war and his buddies while he is at the base wishing that he could go back to the times with them.
ReplyDeleteWhen the narrator says that when your afraid you see things that you can never really see as true. When you are afraid you start to become dillusional, you start to see things that are not there, you start to imagine things that never can be real. You start to think of all your fears, they start to swallow you whole. I think the narrator tries to show that with extreme fear, you start to see things in a whole new light, you start to realize the bad behind the good and the good behind the bad.
ReplyDeleteO'brien's war injury was weird in the light that he was shot in the butt, you think he was trying to escape or flee from the fight that had his team pinned down in the forest. With every infantry unit you should always be able to rely on your medic to help you with injuries or medical alliments and sadly Bobby Jorgenson was not the man fit out to be a medic. So as O'brien was dying of shock and blood loss, Bobby was huddleed in a corner watching as one of his comrades was dying. Of course he would want revenge because the man in charge of saving lives almost let his slip away.
After that O'brien was sent to the 91st evac camp for treatment, he felt as though he needed to be back in the war with his companions, he becomes bored because his friends were not there with him, but then alpha company comes back and O'brien is excited to see his old friends again and he quickly realizes that even though he had been in the war with them he was not with the alpha company anymore they had grown apart from eachother after O'brien left wih his injury.
O'brien was so happy to hear that Jorgenson was on base with them O'brien and Azar come up with plan to scare Jorgenson. They trie to scare him by lifting up a sandbag painted white and they light a bunch of flares and let off a smoke bomb in the middle of the night while Jorgenson is on night patrol. After that Jorgenson finds O'brien in the morning and they forgive eachother for what they did to one another. So all in all O'brien has changed a lot, he once was a fragile young man who was scared of everything, but then he saw the world for what it was and he changed dramatically he started to become brave and he learned how to have fun and grow with others throughout this war.
The quote shows fear almost as a weapon. It strikes your mind in a way that overpowers you and makes you see and believe things that aren't really real. O'Brien's first injury, a side bullet wound, was treated by Rat Kiley which was okay because he knew what he was doing and told O'Brien what to do to help treat him until help arrived. The second injury was an embarrassment for him. Bobby Jorgenson was the new medic and when O'Brien was shot in the butt, Jorgenson failed to treat him because of how nervous he was to be a part of the war. Once he finally gained the courage to come up to O'Brien, he was then dying of shock. This intensely angered O'Brien after being taken out of battle and also when the men from Alpha Company return to base and tell O'Brien that he doesn't fit in with them anymore and instead, Jorgenson does. When O'Brien and Jorgenson finally met up, Jorgenson offered his apology but it was not accepted. He then gets Azar to agree to plot revenge on Jorgenson by attempting to scare him while he's on watch. When this plan doesn't fully work, he realized it was time to move on. The war had changed O'Brien to make him believe that accidents happen and death was actually a normal thing. He no longer felt the same emotions he had in the start of the war, because once you see the same horrible things over and over, they stop affecting you as much.
ReplyDeleteThe quote, "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world," can describe both the way O'Brien felt when he believed he was dying and the way he wanted Jorgenson to feel as revenge. O'Brien already hated Jorgenson for nearly killing him and causing him to have to leave the battle and all of his friends, so when they returned to base and Sanders tells O'Brien that Jorgenson fits in instead of him, that just strengthens O'Brien's desire for revenge. He wanted Jorgenson to feel the true fear that he had so he and Azar come up with a plan to scare him (which fails) even though Jorgenson apologized and O'Brien didn't hate him anymore. He simply needed revenge. The change in O'Brien was mostly that he was no longer as forgiving. He even admits that the war had changed him in ways he didn't think were possible, crushing his "civilized trappings under the weight of simple daily realities." He completely changed his outlook on life after 7 months of battle.
ReplyDeleteThe quote from "Ghost Soldiers" means that when you’re filled with fear you start thinking about everything you love and the things you never normally thought about. When you're afraid you start imagining things that weren't ever there because you're so delusional, your mind starts freaking out and you start paying more attention to things like small little noises which cause you to be even more scared. Fear causes you're life to "flash before your eyes".
ReplyDeleteWhen O'Brien was shot the first time, Rat Kiley took such amazing care of him that he never even really felt any pain. So when he was shot the second time and sat there in pain because the new medic Bobby Jorgenson got nervous it made him really appreciate and miss Rat. Jorgenson nearly lost O'Brien because he forgot to treat him for shock. When they sent O'Brien back to base he spent a long time thinking about getting revenge on Jorgenson for his huge mistake.
Once the rest of his men and Jorgenson returned to base, O'Brien noticed how well Jorgenson fit in with everyone and it made him jealous. He wanted to see Jorgenson as an outcast and a failure, and when he asked his friends to help pull pranks on him they said no. O'Brien felt betrayed because he had been with those men longer yet they sided with Jorgenson. He realized that while he was on base he became out of touch with his men. So he used Azar to get back at Jorgenson. The pranks, however; actually bothered O’Brien more than Jorgenson. They made him realize how cruel the war in Vietnam had made him. O’Brien became mean, brave, and hard compared to when he was fragile before the war.
The author is saying that when you are scared your perspective changes dramatically. You see the world differently because the fear makes you see things you never noticed normally. It makes you appreciate every little thing and moment. The fear for your life makes everything more vivid and significant.
ReplyDeleteO'Brien faces two injuries during the war. The first is quick to heal but the second seriously impacts his life. He is shot and the medic Jorgenson does not help him right away. O'Brien is forced to lie there helpless with all kinds of fears running through his head. Eventually, Jorgenson comes over to help him but doesn't treat him for shock which makes O'Brien feel he is dying. Jorgenson is scared and inexperienced and it almost costs O'Brien his life. O'Brien has a painful and long recovery. He vows to get revenge on Jorgenson for the fear and pain he caused him.
O'Brien is reassigned away from combat. He does not like this. He misses the excitement and danger that comes with being right in the thick of the war. He misses the felling of being alive that comes with the combat. He misses the bond between fellow soldiers and it especially evident when they come to the base. He doesn't feel like a part of them anymore, like a civilian. It's hard for him to listen to their stories about a war he doesn't feel a part of.
O'Brien meets with Jorgenson after he is healed and Jorgenson asks for forgiveness. Jorgenson knows he messed up and he wants to move on. O'Brien almost feels guilty but keeps to the plan to get revenge on Jorgenson. He gets help from Azar to scare Jorgenson by pranking him. O'Brien wants Jorgenson to feel the fear that he felt while he was lying there after being shot.
O'Brien has changed a lot during the war. Before, he was timid and scared out of his mind to go to Vietnam. He almost went to Canada to escape the war. After, he is more heartless and Azar even calls him cruel. He has learned to be less emotional from the war.
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ReplyDeleteWhen Tim says "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." he is showing the immense amount of fear that he men had to face at times. When they became that afraid, their brain begins to play tricks on them and makes them aware of everything surrounding them in an effort to keep them alive. After O'Brien was injured and forced into months of pain and inconvenience he began to grow an intense amount of anger towards Jorgenson. While he was removed from the active combat zone and practically put out pf danger, O'Brien felt as though he was wasting his time and not contributing to the cause. Most soldiers at the time would rather be supporting their buddies than sitting back and watching them suffer and die. This led O'Brien to begin to think of a way to make Jorgenson understand how he made him feel. The best way to do this was to utilize the feeling of intense fear that almost all soldiers had experienced, and never want to. That sense of fear could be compared to O'Brien's feeling of uselessness and lack of power that he felt when removed from the bush. Jorgenson would be able to understand what his mistake had caused even though it did not cost someone their life. At the beginning of O'Brien's experiences in Vietnam he would have never thought to do something like this. However, the intense amount of emotional strain that the war had put on him drastically changed his attitude towards how he should view and handle things. His need for an outlet for his mental strain only became stronger.
ReplyDeleteWhen O'Brien says "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." he is showing how much fear a human can have. When someone's fear becomes so intense it turns into paranoia. You see everything around and some of it isnt real, you hear things that arent there. You begin to think everyone is out to get you,there are no good guys anymore. When O'Brien is taken out of the combat zone he begins to feel helpless. He is out of harms way for a good 2 months. O'Brien became very angry toward Jorgenson and wanted to get even. At the beginning of the war O'Brien would have never felt this way toward anyone. This was his outlet for everything he has gone through in the war. He wanted to use Jorgenson as his punching bag to release heis emotions.
ReplyDeleteIn Ghost Soldiers, the narrator says, "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." I think what he means by this is that when one is scared, people begin to think of every scenario that could possibly happen, and it only adds to the fear that is already consuming them. O'Brien was shot twice, the first time he was treated by Rat Kiley and was able to make a quick recovery. The second time he was shot he was treated by Bobby Jorgenson. Jorgenson was very young and wasn't able to treat O'Brien, causing pain and anger to swell inside of O'Brien. Therefore, making him seek revenge on Jorgenson for the mistreatment of his injuries. O'Brien's reaction to being reassigned was not only humiliation, but more anger, and an even stronger want to make Jorgenson pay. When the men return to the base, O'Brien feels that everything will be the same as it was before, but instead he starts to feel like an outsider. When Jorgenson and O'Brien meet up again, Jorgenson apologizes to him, but that makes O'Brien resent him even more. Azar and O'Brien try to scare him by setting off a series of small explosions, but Jorgenson is not easily fooled, and asks O'Brien if they are finally even. O'Brien is starting to change throughout the war because he starts to lose his compassion for others. He resembles Mary Anne in a way, when she becomes heartless.
ReplyDelete"The Ghost Soldiers" says, "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." I think that this quote explains that fear is the time where you need to snap out of it no matter how frightening or stressful a situation is. The fear that the men experience causes them to see things that they would normally see since they are a part of the world its self. The men’s fear happens to be their reality in the war so snapping out of there fear would force them to face reality.
ReplyDeleteThe injuries that O’Brien acquires during the war make him embarrassed, and make him ashamed of his career as a soldier. No matter how positive people were about his injuries saying it was an honor, O’Brien found nothing positive about it, he only found embarrassment from it. Most of his embarrassment came from Jorgenson who helped him treat one of his wounds. O’Brien finds Jorgenson’s actions nonprofessional because he was late and O’Brien almost died. O’Brien is jealous since he’s not treated like a brother since he wasn’t on the battle field, while Jorgenson is having a fun time and making friends with all of O’Brien’s past war brothers/friends. Seeing that, O’Brien is jealous and wants revenge.
I think O’Brien changes throughout the war by becoming sterner and harder headed. I think maybe it is because of the pain of the war, seeing friends and people die many times. His harder headed personality is a shield and blocks out pain. His harder headed and sterner personality is very prominent because he probably doesn’t know how to deal with pain any other way than acting like a “tough guy”.
When O'Brien says, "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." He is talking about paranoia. War toils with the minds of men, everyone has a breaking point. After getting such good care for is first wound from Rat he shows resentment and anger towards Jorgenson. Jorgenson forgot to treat Tim for shock thus leaving him in tremendous pain. When Tim is taken away from the battlefield to recover he feels like he is just wasting time. He feels like there is no point in being in the war if you are not going to be fighting. He feels as if he has betrayed his company because he gets to leave the battlefield, it is more then just that he has friends, it is all about brotherhood. Wanting to be there for the guy next to you going threw the worst together. All that you have in war are not friends, they are your brothers. O'Brien gets stronger from the war, he has seen some serious things and experienced a lot of pain and suffering , this allows him to build up his mental strength allowing him to keep a cooler head in the wake of combat and death. In his mind the only way to deal with the pain is to cover it up by acting hardcore.
ReplyDeleteWhen the narrator of “The Ghost Soldiers” says, “When you’re afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world,” he means that when you are afraid you start to listen more closely and you watch your surroundings more. That then leads to you noticing more things and in some cases they make you even more scared. O’Brien was shot twice and the first time he was shot, the medic named Rat Kiley took really good care of him. However, the second time he got shot, there was a new medic named Bobby Jorgenson who was scared and didn’t get to O’Brien fast enough so O’Brien ended up going into shock. O’Brien nearly died from this injury which is why he wanted revenge on Jorgenson. When O’Brien was reassigned he felt like he wasn’t doing much fighting anymore and he wasn’t with the other soldiers who he felt were like his brothers. Even though the place where O’Brien went was safer he still wanted to be back with the others and keep fighting. In addition, when the men from Alpha Company returned to base they told O’Brien that he wasn’t part of the company anymore and Jorgenson was. This made O’Brien want to get revenge on Jorgenson even more. When Jorgenson later tries to talk to O’Brien, he attempts to apologize but O’Brien says there are no excuses for what happened. O’Brien then made a plan with Azar to make Jorgenson feel the same pain and fear that O’Brien felt when he was shot. This plan involved triggering noises, flares, and a ghost like object to go off while Jorgenson was on night duty. Throughout the war, O’Brien became a lot tougher and wiser. He started by being extremely afraid to even go into the war because he felt like he wasn’t fit to go into the war As the novel progressed, O’Brien got use to fighting in the war and it became his everyday life. This led him to being stronger and to better understand why certain things happen in life.
ReplyDeleteWhen the narrator says that he means that people become a lot more aware of your surroundings especially in war because no one can see anything and in war there is always the possibility to be killed whether by an enemy or by a freak accident. While in the dark fear can make you see things and hear things that aren't even there.
ReplyDeleteO'Brien was shot twice one was when Rat Kiley was a medic and one while Bobby Jorgenson was a medic. When Rat Kiley took care of him he was shot in the arm and he received medical attention right away and then was checked on a few times throughout the fight and he was properly taken care of and he was able to recover back to his normal condition. When Jorgenson was medic O'Brien was shot in the butt and had to wait ten minutes before Jorgenson even got over to see to his medical needs even though O'Brien was calling out for a medic. This led him to almost die from shock and then with Jorgenson's tactics he also was not treated up the best and suffered from what almost was gangrene. This wound didn't heal up properly and he had to leave the on-field stuff and had to go work at a base where he packed helicopters to resupply the troops.
At first O'Brien doesn't mind working at base because it is a lot easier and not as dangerous, but soon he starts to miss the war because that feel of danger is what he started to grow accustom to and he missed it along with his friends. When Alpha Company comes back to base O'Brien realizes there is a distance between him and his old friends that he can't fix. There isn't that closeness that he used to feel. This he blames on Jorgenson and decides that he has had enough of what he put him through; the constant pain, the missing closeness, and his reassignment. So then he pulls the prank on Jorgenson with Azar but halfway through the prank Azar starts to take it too far and O'Brien keeps telling him to stop but he won't. O'Brien also sees that Jorgenson isn't getting that scared by the whole thing. When it's finally over and Azar kicks O'Brien in the head and Jorgenson is fixing him up they finally call truce and decide that what's in the past is in the past. Throughout this whole night O'Brien begins to see how cold he has become because of the war and how he has completley changed from the person he went in there as.
"When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." What I think the narrator means by this is when scared for your life you tone everything else out you don’t think about the about what you had for dinner last night, your mind is completely focused on the now and you see things you otherwise would look right over. O’Brien was shot twice in war with two very different experiences. The first incident happened with Rat Kiley as the medic, in which Rat handled the situation perfectly making O’Brien fell safe. The second shooting was with a brand new medic called Bobby Jorgenson who was struck with fear and let O’Brien suffer while he watched on, O’Brien went into shock and almost died, and he was taken off the Alpha Company and returned to base to load trucks. When Alpha Company came into base Bobby apologized to O’Brien for what had happened but the anger and rage inside of him had been plotting against Jorgenson for months and needed to get him back. This led O’Brien to enlist the help of Azar together they attempted to scare Jorgenson one night while he was on guard duty. Afterwards Jorgenson was not mad but instead happy that he was finally even with O’Brien, they shook hand and went back to normal. Throughout the war O’Brien changed, he went in a scared kid from Minnesota and seeing the things he saw came out a new man.
ReplyDeleteWhen the narrator said "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." I interpret this as becoming aware of the action that is going on in front of you and only that. Your mind is undivided and you only care about staying alive. Tim O'Brien, the narrator, was shot twice once in the side and another in the but. The side was takin care of quickly by the platoons medic Bob Kiley. The bullet through the but is a different story. The medic at this time is Bobby Jorgenson, who is new to the Platoon and takes ten minutes to get to where O'Brien is screaming at. Later O'Brien finds out that he almost died from shock and wants to get revenge on the medic because he almost killed him. O'Brien is reassigned after getting shot in the but. After first he is happy that he doesn't have to be on alert all the time. This changes when the Alpha Company comes into base. O'Brien feels like a civilian and no longer a solider like these men who he used to go into life threatening situations with. When O'Brien sees Jorgenson there meeting is cold and not full of anything good. Azar and O'Brien plan to scare the living daylights out of Jorgenson so he knows how it feels to be completely scared out of your wits and think that your about to die. O'Brien changes throughout the war. Before he was a scared kid from Minnesota now after the war it changed him to have a new perspective of things and to savior his life, not knowing how much longer he will live.
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ReplyDelete"When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." The narrator means that when you are afraid you tend to pay more attention to details that you might have never noticed before. During the war Tim O'Brien was shot twice. His first experience was not very painful and a very easy recovery. His second experience was very painful and was not given the right medical assistance fast enough. Because of the new medic Bobby Jorgenson he was shipped to a less dangerous task. He was taken off the Alpha Company and now helped resupply helicopters for troops in need of supplies. When the Alpha Company came to his base Tim realizes he was no longer apart of the group. He was foot solider but now he is a laid back soldier who is too injured to fight. Because he was sent off has planned an elaborate scheme to get revenge on Bobby. When Azar and Tim get revenge on Bobby by scaring him to death Tim and Bobby were even and made up. In the beginning of the novel Tim was very scared to fight in the war, but as the book progressed fighting became an everyday task and became routine like. He became stronger as the novel progressed.
ReplyDelete"When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." What I think the narrator meant by this quote is that when you're put into a serious and/or life threatening situation you finally come to a realization and face the truth. You can no longer be oblivious to all things and have to now face reality. O'Brien was shot twice, in the first situation he was shot in the side, and had Bob Kiley was his medic and he handled the situation perfectly. The second time O'Brien was shot in the butt and he had Bobby Jorgenson as his medic who did a botched job and almost allowed him to die from shock. When the Alpha Company returned to the base O'Brien had built up anger and wanted to seek revenge on Jorgenson so he sought out Azar to help him. Their plan was to scare Jorgenson to the point where he thought he was going to die, and they did so. After that happened Jorgenson was happy to know that him and O'Brien were even. O'Brien changes substantially throughout the war, he's no longer a scared and fearful boy, he's stronger now, and he appreciates things as they come.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the quote about fear wasn't just a comment on the sense of alertness that comes from being afraid at a moment, but rather a comment about how great stress and fear build up to make you take a different perspective on the world. One of the centralized themes in this book is how an experience of drastic importance can change long term perspective. This is seen in several cases throughout many of the stories, in which not only going to Vietnam, but slightly more time in proximity to the entropy that is Vietnam during the war completely drives a person to be set apart from their former peers, such as in the Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong. I believe that this sense of separation is what O'Brien feels towards his counterparts in Alpha company after he was removed from his station with them. His means for revenge further show the hardening and lack of sympathy that came from a hard lived life at war. In general, the war made O'Brien and everyone else change so incredibly, they were practically unrecognizable to their former peers. The long exposure to fear made them permanently see things the way that they hadn't saw it before.
ReplyDeleteWhen the narrator of the story “The Ghost Soldiers” says this he is saying that you start to notice things that you have never noticed before, such as little things like blades of grass and pebbles. I think in another sense the narrator is also trying to say how we often take life for granted and when afraid we realize how much life truly means and how much we want to stay alive by feeling true fear.
ReplyDeleteO’ Brien is actually shot twice in the war and the first time he is shot in the side and immediately attended to and fixed up by Rat Kiley. The second time however O’Brien is shot in his rear and Bobby Jorgenson, the new medic, fails to act quickly and treat O’Brien. Jorgenson’s hesitation and lack of experience cause O’Brien to nearly lose his life from shock. This near death experience with what O’Brien felt like was a minor injury results in O’Brien’s ill feelings toward Jorgenson.
O’ Brien soon adjusts to life outside of the heat of battle and enjoys being able to relax and no longer have to fear as much. When Alpha Company returns however, he feels like an outcast and out of the loop on many things. O’Brien feels like a friend that moved away and tries to catch up with his old friends but soon realizes that what he once had is no longer there. O’Brien feels separated from them and when Alpha Company comes to visit O’Brien becomes jealous of their field work.
Azar and O’Brien decide to spook Jorgenson while he is out on duty at the base. They make rattling noises around Jorgenson’s bunker and send off flares to try and scare Jorgenson. What truly tops it off are the sandbags made to look like a ghost that Azar and O’Brien use in the end in an attempt to scare Jorgenson.
Throughout the war O’Brien has become much meaner. O’Brien wants revenge on Jorgenson, something he would not have wanted before the war. O’Brien realizes his change and accepts it rather than trying to fight it showing that he has embraced what the war has made him.
When the narrator says "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." I think the narrator means that when you're scared, you have to time to think. Sometimes you over think things and make up scenarios in your head about bad things that you think will happen. When you're scared your mind plays tricks on you and you see things that aren't actually there. Every little movement around you is noticeable and has you on your toes. Opposed to when you're not afraid, you block out the little things.
ReplyDeleteTim O'Brien was shot two times during the war. The first time he was shot was in his side and Bob Kiley was the medic of his unit at the time. Bob Kiley was a tremendously good medic. He had no fears and acted very quickly in getting to O'Brien. After Bob Kiley left the unit, Bobby Jorgenson was sent in as the new medic. The second time O'Brien was shot was in the butt. Jorgenson was scared out of his mind to even move over to O'Brien. He went in and out of consciousness until Jorgenson had finally worked up the nerve to move. O'Brien nearly died of shock at that time. When he had recovered from his injury he wanted to get revenge on Jorgenson. He wanted to make him afraid. He wanted to make him notice the little things around him.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator of "The Ghost Soldiers" is trying to say that when you experience fear you begin to notice many new things in life. Once you have experienced true fear you begin to be consumed by paranoia. Although this is negative and an awful burden to live with paranoia results in appreciation. You begin to take nothing for granted and find tremendous value in your life. O'Brien is shot in the side and because of Jorgenson's poor medical treatment, O'Brien almost dies. O'Brien does not feel honored or special to be injured in the war. He feels shame and embarrassment. He wants revenge on the poor medic and when he sees that Jorgenson has become "one of them" it only enrages him more. O'Brien wants Jorgenson to feel the same fear, shame, and embarrassment that he once felt, and he teams up with Azar to get it done. Azar and O'Brien are successful with their prank even though O'Brien calls it off early. After the prank O'Brien says he feels strangely close to Jorgenson, and Jorgenson says that the prank was so good O'Brien should consider working on movie sets. The unhealthy need to get revenge on Jorgenson really shows how O'Brien has changed. He has become bitter and mean. He has changed and hardened.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator is explaining how actual fear causes people to show a new side of themselves. People go through fear everyday, but how often do they go through actual fear? Fear causes people to get scarred and on edge about what they are experiencing. However, actual fear causes people to be thankful for what they posses and not be as greedy. When people go through actual fear, they become grateful for the gift of life. O'Brien is shot twice during combat. The first time he is shot in the side. The medic, Rat Kiley, does a great job while treating his wounds and stays calm about it. Rat Kiley's calmness helps O'Brien be calm about his injury and not be as terrified. When O'Brien is shot the second time in the butt, it is more painful. O'Brien is extremely shocked and the new medic, Bobby Jorgenson, does not calm O'Brien down. Jorgenson doesn't really know what he's doing and causes O'Brien to almost die. O'Brien realizes that he had a near death experience. He vows to take revenge on Jorgenson. When O'Brien is away from the heat of battle, he becomes more laid back. He likes that he doesn't have to be scarred as much. When the Alpha Company returns to base, O'Brien wants to have his friends assist him in vengeance against Jorgenson. However, only one person will help O'Brien and that's Azar. O'Brien and Azar put their shenanigan into action and scare Jorgenson. O'Brien tells Azar that he has had enough and doesn't want to finish what they started. After they are done messing with Jorgenson, O'Brien later forgives Jorgenson and they shake hands. O'Brien has changed from a quiet and thoughtful person to a mean and cruel person during the war.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you looked at the statement in a much different perspective than I did. Building on your point that people experience fer every day, when a person experiences this fear, although it is minor it still can make a person think. Say someone is home alone at night and hears a loud pounding on their door. Their heart begins to race and a multitude of ideas flow through their head. Whatever is outside could be dangerous so some people might begin to worry, but when they look it could only be a friend or even a neighbor. For that brief moment though they do however experience fear, although mild there are glimpses of actual fear. So daily as people we do experience bits and pieces of actual fear.
Delete"When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." I think this quote shows how when once becomes afraid their senses go on to high alert and from that point it's a matter of survival. Compare it to a child or teenager home alone at night. The smallest sounds tend to scare them. Whether it's the washing machine, the wind, or a simple creak. They immediately think that there is something out to get them and they come up with any possible way to survive. Tim O'Brien felt this when he was shot and Bobby Jorgenson chooses not to treat his wound. He was humiliated but was also afraid that he'd die. This leads to O'Brien's revenge on Jorgenson. O'Brien wanted Jorgenson to feel the same thing that he did when he was shot and what it was like to live through it painfully. O'Brien and his friend Azar team up to get revenge on Jorgenson and succeed. Both the men make amends in the end, but O'Brien comes to realize that he has become a hardened man, more hostile than once before - a result from his hate for Jorgenson.
ReplyDeleteI think what the narrator was trying to say was that when a person is in a life threatening or is scared they think through their life and grab a hold of the little things, like a blade of grass, before you bite the dust. The first time O'Brien was shot it was located on his side and Rat took very good care of him, evening coming back to him to reassure him. His second war injury was located on his but and Jorgenson was to scared to even run over and take care of O'Brien. O'Brien was going through shock laying there on the ground and he was close to death because of Jorgenson's lack of experience. That was the main reason why O'Brien wanted revenge, because he almost died of shock from Jorgenson's lack of reacting fast enough and O'Brien can't let it go. When O'Brian leaves the heat of battle he feels safe almost, a little less stress. Although sometimes he misses the battle. When his men return to base he feels almost out of the loop, more distant from his once brothers. He also starts seeking revenge for Jorgenson but Sander calls him sick, and Sander also openly admits that O'Brien isn't really one of them anymore. When O'Brien was approached by Jorgenson he wouldn't accept his apology. So, O'Brien teams up with Azar to get revenge on Jorgenson by making noises outside his building to give him the feeling of being really afraid, but in the end O'Brien gets kicked in the head by Azar. The war changed O'Brien in the way that it made him cruel, and in my eyes hollow. Although he was given a bigger outlook on life and people.
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of the statement is that if you experience fear you see more and you think of things differently than you had before. When you are close to death you see things in a more survival way. O'Brien was mad at Jorgenson over the pain and fear caused by the lack of experience of the doctor and was mad at how badly the treatment was. When he got reassigned he felt as though he lost the connection to the other soldiers he had before. This leads him to be more bitter and leads him to attempt to pull a prank to scare Jorgenson to show him fear. This showed how the pressure of the war led him to think of things differently.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator means that when you are frightened you notice things you normally wouldn't and your imagination goes wild and you think you notice things but really they don't exist. Jorgenson didn't treat O'Brien properly and his wound was much more of a problem than it should have been. O'Brien and Azar make noises and throw flares and tear gas to scare Jorgenson. O'Brien now puts plans into action and is much more insensitive.
ReplyDeleteI think the narrators quote meant that when you are looking death in the face you come to the realization that the only thing that matters is what is happening right in front of you. Bobby Jorgenson did not react to O’Brien’s injury quickly because he was scared and did not want to be put into the situation that Tim was in. Bobby was afraid to help him because he could not get passed thinking of only himself, he would have watched a fellow soldier die because he was to worried about being shot or injured. Tim’s wound became much worse than what it should have been if Jorgenson would have just helped him immediately. O’Brien was mad about being reassigned away from battle because of what happened with Jorgenson. Tim plans revenge on Jorgenson to make him feel how Tim felt before going to war, so he can know what it is like to have so much fear and be afraid. O’Brien goes from being quiet and afraid to a revengeful and bitter person during the war.
ReplyDeleteThe injures that O'Brien had were made worse by Jorgenson's lack of experience in the war medical field. If he hadn't of waited so long to treat O'Brien's wounds he would of never of taken so long to heal. He could of stayed with his troop and avoided the embarrassment of being reassigned. The way Jorgenson handled Tim being shot angered him. Tim wanted revenge for making him suffer through the pain. When Tim is reassigned he no longer feels like a soldier, he feels useless to the war. During the time Tim is away, his troop has almost forgotten about him. They no longer see him as an equal member. He's an outsider and Jorgenson has taken his place. This only furthers O'Briens anger. Once he meets with Jorgenson, Tim becomes spiteful at the fact that Jorgenson apology made him feel guilty. O'Brien and Azar plan to pull a prank on Jorgenson to scare him. By doing something so intentionally mean like this to Jorgenson, it shows that Tim has changed in a way where he no longer cares if someone feels remorse for their actions. He is spiteful and rude. He's no longer innocent and scared. The war had made him colder.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator says "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." To me this means that you suddenly realize how important things are to you. You see how precious life really is. O'Brien's adrenaline made everything seem so real and so frightening. All he could think about was how he was going to die and the medic was completely ignoring him. He had been shot, and Bobby Jorgenson was not doing his job as a medic. He thought there was no reason for this. He did not care to hear Bobby's excuses because he had almost let him die.
ReplyDeleteO'Brien was reassigned due to his injury and the fact that he was constantly in extreme pain. When his friends came to visit him, it was different. He felt like they were no longer his brothers. He was only gone for a little while, yet it was like they barely knew him. This made O'Brien very angry. These men were his brothers but because of Bobby, he was no longer a part of them.
O'Brien and Azar planned to scare Jorgenson as revenge. He wanted him to feel the same way he felt after he got shot. He wanted him to see how terrified he was, and how he thought he was going to die. After his revenge on Jorgenson, O'Brien realizes how the war has changed him. He was being cruel, but he did not really care.
When the narrator speaks of fear in "The Ghost Soldiers" and says, "When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." He means that when someone is truly afraid they tend to hyper-focus. They tend to focus more on their surroundings and less on themselves by beginning to look over their shoulder every few seconds and making a conscious effort to listen to what's going on around them.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the war, O'Brien was shot two different times, once in the side and once in the buttock. The first time was no big deal. The usual medic Rat Kiley treated him without any major issues, but the second time he almost died because Bobby Jorgenson failed to treat him for shock. As a result he became extremely ill.
When O'Brien was reassigned he feels almost like he is no longer in the war. He is able to relax much more in safety. The only downfall however is he no longer gets to see all of his war friends and when Alpha Company does return he doesn't feel as comfortable around them. He is jealous of how they get to be on the move and in the battle together. In a strange way he misses all of the danger and mixture of emotions.
O'Brien's meeting with Jorgenson is quite odd. He is in a strange state of mind and isn't even the same person that was deployed to Vietnam a short time ago. He doesn't except the young man's apologies and decides to get back at him by just scaring him. So O'Brien and Azar set up noise makers and tear gas in the middle of the night just to get a reaction out of Jorgenson. It was nothing major, but it was still unlike him to do such a thing and he felt pathetic afterwards.
In his time in Vietnam O'Brien undergoes drastic changes. He is no longer the scholar who came to Vietnam who became queasy with the sight of a dead body. He adjusted his views on things. He learned to cope with killing a man if he had to, realizing it was all necessary for simply surviving. O'Brien also changed what he thought about the war. Before he left he opposed it, but he soon accepted that he had to be there and fight, even if he didn't agree with the reasons.
As Tim the narrator was talking about being afraid and that you see things you never saw before; what he was trying to say it that when you’re afraid there is a kick of fear and adrenaline all at once you see things in the world differently. O’Brien got shot twice. Once was he was shot when he was with Kiley and then Kiley was there to take care of him. Then Tim was sent away to recover from his injury. The second time Tim was shot in the butt but Jorgenson was too afraid to crawl over and help him out seeking revenge for Bobby. O’Brien finally met up with the men from his old base but he eventually sought that he was an outsider now and they told him to stop worrying about Jorgenson that he was just a rookie and he was scared. Eventually he and Jorgenson meet up and Jorgensen apologized for his actions and that he was scared and for what happened. But this just made O’Brien seek for more revenge but not that he could hate him after Jorgensen apologizing. O’Brien met with Azar to make a plan to scare Jorgenson but when they were going through with trying to scare him O’Brien tried to back out but Azar still went on with him. O’Brien changed through the war by he realized how childish and how immature he was acting towards Jorgenson.
ReplyDeleteWhen the narrator says " when you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." What he means by this is when your facing intense fear or death your mind lets go of the little things and focuses on the bigger picture. You pay more attention to the important things in fear that you might never see them again or that'll miss something. O'Brien was shot twice. He was shoot once in the side and once in the behind. O'Brien wanted revenge on Bobby Jorgenson because during his second injury Jorgenson failed at doing his job to treat him. Which caused O'Brien pain and suffering. When O'Brien was reassigned he felt safer being distanced from the heat of the battle but he also felt distanced from his friends and troop. When Alpha Company came back to base he feels as if the bond between him and his troop is lost and that he was replaced by Jorgenson. which just adds to reasons why he does not like him and made him more vengeful. Although Jorgenson apologized he does not accept it. O'Brien and Azar place noise makers to show Jorgenson the fear O'Brien faced. By doing this it made O'Brien realize how war has changed him and made him cold and cruel.
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