Free Things They Carried Essays: Instinct :: Things They Carried Essays

Human Instinct in The Things They Carried   Fear is a strong sense that is constantly haunting the minds of the men in Tim OBriens book, The Things They Carried. Fear is handled by contrary men in different ways. However, through the characters of Dave Jenson and Lee Struck in Enemies and Friends, two opposing reactions bum be seen. HCAL defines cultural studies as something that can ...either create alliance or cause division and alienation(240). By using cultural studies it is possible to analyze these two stories to understand wherefore these two men react differently to he same feeling under different circumstances.   In Enemies, Jenson and Struck have a fleck over a missing jackknife which evolves from a broken look to a broken mind. The two men become enemies not only when are they faced with the forethought of war, but also of the fear of separately other(a). Jenson was affected the most by this. He began to loose his sanity observation both the enemy li nes and his own men trusting no one. In an attempt to justify the fight with Struck, he breaks his own nose along with yelling and shooting off rounds of ammunition. The fear that built up inside(a) of Jenson causes him to be alienated from the rest of the Army.   Unlike the prior story, in Friends, fear helps to bring Jenson and Struck closer together. They are both afraid of returning(a) from the war dismembered in some fashion. To prevent this, the men form a agreement that if one of them is hurt in such a way, that the other would kill them. Because of this pact, the men are united with a common trust. This helps to resolve the fear and allow them to not be as scared of the war.   These two stories show how fear can cause the bond of friendship and community or hatred which resulted in alienation. The two character, Lee Strunk and Dave Jenson, show how a mans reaction to fear can affect him. In the story Enemies, Jenson slow begins to isolate himself as a way to ke ep away from Strunk. He views everyone as the enemy making his foxholes near the perimeter and always property his back covered. This constant fear ate way at Jenson until he finally lost his sanity. In Friends, Jenson and Strunk take deal with fear in a more positive way.