Soldiers’ deaths
I thought it was interesting comparing the terms used to describe someone’s death. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the men used terms that are not terms that a normal human would use. A lot of times the phrase “passed away” is used to say that someone has died.
I think it is strange that soldiers become so close to their fellow soldiers that when they die they don’t say that so and so “passed away.” There might be a difference between the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq. I can’t imagine having Iraq soldiers say that so and so “blew up,” or something of the sort.
I was reading an article about a Sergeant who had died in combat about five years ago. His soldiers who were with him that day were there to remember him. One man spoke about him and his time in Iraq, and at the end he said “Smith was a soldier who took care of soldiers. He lost his life doing it.” I think it’s important for the soldiers to use sensitive terms so that it seems more personal.
The thing I didn’t like about The Things They Carried was that it didn’t seem real when they said that Ted Lavender was “zapped while zipping.” It seems to me that if soldiers spend time together they wouldn’t be so insensitive when someone passes away.
Two soldiers from my hometown unfortunately were killed in Iraq, and I never once heard anyone say something disrespectful or insensitive about their deaths.
I think that a lot of times in Vietnam men didn’t want to get too close to their fellow soldiers in case they were to die.
When the men returned from Vietnam, they probably didn’t change their description of Ted Lavender being “zapped while zipping” to “passed away” because they didn’t want to be fake. They didn’t want to war to be different than they knew it.
I feel that today’s war in Iraq is more personal and sensitive when someone passes away. That is good for two reasons. One, that it helps the family deal with the soldier’s death, and two, it helps the fellow soldiers stay calm and focus on getting out of Iraq alive and as soon as possible.
April 16, 2008
Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried
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April 16th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Perhaps “zapped while zipping” is the only way that Tim O’Brian could explain his death. I don’t necessarily know if he was being disrespectful, i think he was attempting to give more information on his death with fewer words. Wait, did that make sense…..i think so.
Sometimes soldiers cannot talk about their experience because it brings too many painful memories, so in order to get point across, they need to use non descriptive language. I know a couple of Vietnam veterans who will not talk about their past unless they joke about it, or don’t get too serious. It might just be O’Brian’s way of coping…
April 18th, 2008 at 9:42 am
This blog reminds me of one of Charles Sorley’s poems called “When You Millions of the Mouthless Dead”. Here is a little excerpt…
“Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you’ll remember. For you need not so.
Give them not praise. For, deaf, how should they know
It is not curses heaped on each gashed head?
Nor tears. Their blind eyes see not your tears flow.
Nor honour. It is easy to be dead.
Say only this, “They are dead.” Then add thereto,
“Yet many a better one has died before.”
It’s true that language plays a huge role in the way soldiers experience the death of comrades. But maybe what Sorley says about the dead is true. It probably doesn’t matter whether someone is using the “right” words. They’re not alive to hear them. Everyone has their own way of “breaking faith with the dead”, and like you said, it might just be O’Briens way of coping.