Comparing and Contrasting Sean Huze and Tim O’Brien
(The first two links listed are a short biography on both the lives of Sean Huze and Tim O'Brien... enjoy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_O%27Brien_%28author%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Huze
“What could be closer to playing God than ending another’s life” (Huze, 17)? The idea is to find out more about the effects killing another human being has on soldiers, and this is a great quote to open up such a topic. The point is to find out more by comparing and contrasting The Man I Killed and Ambush which are two short stories that tell one tale and they are found in the novel, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, and the monologue of Cpl Rodriguez found in the play The Sandstorm by Sean Huze. Both of these pieces are dynamic works of art, and both open up on what the effects are on a person after they kill another human being.
In The Sandstorm by Sean Huze, the character Corporal Rodriguez discusses just one of many emotions a soldier has after ending the life of another human being. It is a feeling of having no feeling. An example is found in a quote by Rodriguez: “…I searched for my soul for how I felt about the death that I brought that day. Searched for some sort of human feeling of regret or compassion. Searched and searched and came up with nothing” (Huze, 17). After killing so many people, one can’t imagine how it might feel after awhile. With so much destruction and so much death day after day, one could see how easily the feeling of compassion could become nullified. This feeling of numbness could also be described as a feeling of disbelief. The mind literally will deny that it is killing anyone, and that it is a job, so it fights off the compassion to make it easier, it moves on. On the other hand, there are other soldiers who could become speechless, who are filled with so much compassion or shock that they completely shut down.
(Sean Huze interview video, why he enlisted and what he got from it. Credit goes to YouTube user: GOODMagazine)
In O’Brien’s short story, The Man I Killed, we can see a direct example of a soldier shutting down. This can be seen in the text where the character that killed the enemy citizen solider sits staring at the dead body whilst the other character keeps trying to talk to him, asking him questions, trying to get him to snap out of it. He asks questions like, “You want to trade places with him? Turn it all upside down – you want that? I mean, be honest” (O’Brien, 120). The character Kiowa is trying to get the soldier to snap out of the complete loss of words and state of shock he is in. He is trying anything to get him to come to terms with his kill. This is both a comparison and a contrast; both soldiers felt the emptiness, both searched themselves that day, but one moved on and the other couldn’t right away. It took him some time, and it held up his company from moving on to the next objective. By comparing these two texts one can just start to see the start of the effects. First may come a feeling of emptiness but for some the feeling dissipates just as fast as it comes and for others it haunts them the rest of their lives.
(A video that includes a pictures that tells the story of The Man I Killed by Tim O'Brien Credit goes to YouTube user: sgunn007)
(A well made video using quotes from They Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Credit goes to YouTube user: BooksInspiringFilm)
The feeling that a soldier gets while in the middle of killing another, is also pretty similar as well as different in its respective ways. Both seem to run off adrenaline at the time of committing the act, yet O’Brien’s character ends up regretting the decision, becoming filled with emotion and Huze’s character actually enjoys it. However, this doesn’t make the person who enjoyed it a sick person, because adrenaline can make the solider feel a lot of things that are not a his true feelings. It is all about the moment and his body adjusting to make him survive that moment. In the monologue there are a few quotes that emphasize these points. This first one deals with the actual emotion while in the act of killing: “The fear gave way to adrenaline and a part of me was actually enjoying it” (Huze, 17). This quote proves the point of adrenaline taking over the soldier’s entire body, releasing him of fear and trying to help him survive the moment, but this still doesn’t make the character a sick person. With so much adrenaline and fighting the character has lost all feeling, and because he has become desensitized, the fault can’t be placed on him. “Maybe the only casualties weren’t the ones lying dead on the streets of Nasirya. Maybe some of us are walking dead, soulless shells of the men we were” (Huze, 17). The quote gives the reader a glance into what the war has done; killing wreaks havoc upon the soul both while it’s happening and the after-effect. Clearly the man in O’Brien’s story didn’t move on right away, the adrenaline led to an immediate shell-shock effect. While fighting he too ran off adrenaline. Upon sight of his target his instincts told him to lob off a grenade. “…I felt my head go empty and then felt it fill up again. I had already thrown the grenade before telling myself to throw it” (O’Brien, 127). The fact is that soldiers have to act on impulse. Before they know if the target is threatening or not, they are trained in such a way that adrenaline takes over and the killing instincts kick in and it is afterwards that they feel either remorse or no remorse depending on the soldier’s personality.
(A video interview with Tim O'Brien. Credit goes to: BigThink Media)
http://bigthink.com/ideas/19620#ooid=NxZmpjMTp_d_s8Pfe4dZyNB8V12_VHqNWhat happens to a soldier after the war, after the killing, after the destruction is a completely different matter. Both men in the different stories had different lives afterwards. The monologue is so vague with how the soldier lived his life out after the war; we are left with only a final quote from him, “Maybe some of us are walking dead, soulless shells of the men we were” (Huze, 17). The reader is left wondering if the character is living out his life now still as a walking dead with no emotion because of the war. However the reader does have a glimpse of how the character in O’Brien’s story turned out. In his short story, Ambush, which is a continuation of the short story, The Man I Killed, one reads at the end about how the soldier re-lives the moment he killed the man every so often. This is an example of how soldiers are haunted by memories of war which contributes to how they live out their lives post war. This quote gives a perfect understanding of the after-effects this character is now experiencing.
“Even now I haven’t finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don’t. In the ordinary hours of life I try not to dwell on it, but now and then, when I am reading a newspaper or just sitting alone in a room, I’ll look up and see the young man step out of the morning fog. I’ll watch him walk toward me, his shoulders slightly stooped, his head cocked to the side, and he’ll pass within a few yards of me and suddenly smile at some secret thought and then continue up the trail to where it bends back into the fog” (O’Brien, 128).
The pain this particular soldier lives with now is unbearable. He never fully recovered, nor did he ever seem to be able to fully cope with killing like Cpl Rodriguez was able to do in Huze’s monologue. The traumatizing effects killing another human have on a soldier can be seen very clearly here. Some soldiers never recover, some go on to live normal lives, but every single one of them is affected by the trauma that comes from killing another human being.
(A short clip about PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and how one in five soldiers from Iraq will come back with it. Also, how they are treating it. Credit goes to YouTube user: CBS)
The differences that are found in these two literary texts as well as the similarities are clearly displayed. Both characters were soldiers, both were asked to kill, both put their lives on the line. However, both had different experiences before, during and after the kill. They both did what they had to do, and whether good or bad, the after-effects still present themselves to this day.
(A video Interview with Sean Huze about his movie roles and also his experience in the Marines/ Credit goes to YouTube user: seanhuze)
(Two links that provide an excerpt of an interview with an Iraq War Veteran and one with a Vietnam War Veteran.)
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/82362/interview_with_a_soldier_an_american.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/227420/an_interview_with_a_vietnam_veteran.html?cat=9
Works Cited
Huze, Sean. “The Sandstorm: Stories from the Front.” New York, New York:
Susan Schulman Literary Agency, 2004. Print.
O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried. “ 1st Ed. New York, New York: Houghton
Mifflin, 2009. Print.
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