"Enemies" and "Friends"

Summary: I recently started reading The Things They Carried, written by Tim O'Brien. I am about half way through the book and there were two chapters that made an impact on me. The Chapters were called "Enemies" and "Friends." In both of the chapters the Author Tim O'Brien is talking about two men that were in his platoon. Their names were Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk. In the first chapter he tells us how they started off being enemies. Jensen and Strunk got in a fight over a missing jackknife and Jensen thinks that Stunk took it. They get in a very physical fight and Jensen breaks Strunk's nose and Stunk ends up having to get flown off to see a medic. When Strunk gets back he his all bandaged up. When Jensen sees that Strunk has returned he gets this nervous feeling that Strunk was going to want revenge. Jensen starts staying up all night and gripping his pistol tighter in fear that Strunk was going to retaliate. The fear gets to Jensen and he ends up going crazy. One day he just fires his automatic gun up in the air till the whole magazine is gone and then he takes his pistol and hits himself over the nose with it. As he was doing this in front of Strunk he asks him if they are even now. Strunk says yes and tells everyone else that Jensen is crazy and that he really did steal his jackknife. In the second chapter O'Brien tells us how Jensen and Strunk become friends. It starts off with them starting to trust each other. Jensen and Strunk start going on missions together and they dig their trenches together and take turns watching one anthers back. They become so close that they make this pact that if one of them gets hurt to the point they are in a wheel chair then the other man has to kill him. After they made this pact Strunk's lower leg gets blown off by a motor round. He is in complete shock and tries to walk on it as if it were ok. Strunk was loosing a lot of blood and was in and out of consciousness. Jensen was kneeling right next to him and every time Strunk would wake up he would ask Jensen not to kill him. Jensen replied every time that he would not kill him. Strunk is begging for Jensen not to kill him because all he can think about is their pact. Strunk is taken off in a helicopter and passes away in the air. When Jensen finds out he is relieved.

Response: The reason these chapters had an impact on me was because it is crazy to me how things were in Vietnam during the war. These chapters show how you could not trust anyone, not even the soldiers fighting with you. At first Jensen was so scared that Strunk was going to get him back for breaking his nose. I believe he went a little psycho when he smashed in his own nose but it showed the readers how difficult it was for all of them to be out there. It also shows that Jensen was just being paranoid because Strunk really did steal his jackknife. Normally these two men would never be friends outside this war but because they were forced to be in the same platoon they ended up being able to tolerate each other and then become friends. It was nice to see them have each others backs even though at first Jensen was scared of Shrunk retaliating. In my opinion they made the pact to kill one another because they were too afraid of the outcome, but when it came down to it I somehow knew they would not be able to go through with it. That is exactly what happened. Strunk was scared and did not want to die. Jensen was no longer there too kill his friend that was in pain but he was there to keep him company when he was dying. Although Strunk did not die in front of him, Jensen was there with him towards the end of his life to give him hope. Jensen felt a relief that Strunk died because if Strunk were to live then Jensen would have to confront him with knowing that he did not obey their pact. Everyone of those soldiers in this book and that went to Vietnam were such brave men and I am glad we had them fighting for our country but it is a terrible the things that they had to go through.