Ghost Soldiers

In the story “Ghost Soldiers”, Tim O’Brien recollects the two occasions in which he was shot in Vietnam. On the first occasion, O’Brien ends up literally on the lap of one of his war buddies, a medic, Rat Kiley. Kiley attended to O’Brien quickly an eased his wound and the shock he had endured. After a short recovery, O’Brien returns to duty and discovers Riley was wounded and had been shipped off to Japan. In his place is a man named Bobby Jorgenson. This new medic, ends up being on duty when O’Brien is shot the second time. Unlike Riley, he is inexperienced in dealing with the chaos and tragedy surrounding them, leaving him frozen and unable to attend to O’Brien properly. Because of this, Tim O’Brien was in massive shock, pain, and he ended up with gangrene. “I’d squirm around , cussing, half nuts with pain, and pretty soon I’d remember how Bobby Jorgenson had almost killed me” (192).This event quickly led to him to feelings of anger, isolation, resentment, and the desire to get revenge on Jorgenson.

O’Brien conjures up a prank with a fellow soldier in attempts to get his revenge. They basically spook Jorgenson in the dark by creating noises and images that resemble an enemy attack and something ghostly. His attempts to bring the same fear and anguish into Jorgensen’s world, does not go as planned. Before the prank is discovered, to O’Brien’s surprise, Bobby was courageous in his reactions. Once Jorgenson realizes the situation, he is compassionate towards his emotionally wounded peer and they in turn, come to a sort of truce. They are “even”.

Tim O’Brien spent day after day in emotional and physical distress after his second shooting. His isolation and restlessness in his hospital bed feels far more painful than the actual distress he endured on the battlefield. He wants to transfer this pain and terror onto Jorgenson. He knows the best revenge is to mess with Jorgen’s psyche. It is the way to take him to that fragile and hollow feeling of helplessness that he experienced. “I could read his mind. I was there with him. Together we understood what terror was: you’re not a human anymore. You’re a shadow” (211).

It isn’t the physical pain of being shot that O’ Brien wants to provoke, it is the psychology that comes with being shot and having to lay there alone, with no one to rescue you. His second shooting felt all too real. Now, instead of being out “playing war” with his fellow men, his is stuck trying to heal. This changes his relationship with the other soldiers. His cushy isolation is a prison and the element keeping him from connecting with them. He needs to witness Jorgenson in that same state of distress, seclusion, and vulnerability in order to feel resolved. When he actually goes to follow through with his prank, he comes to see that Jorgenson is competent and only human. In turn, O’Briens’ own humanity and compassion somewhat reluctantly, returns.







Original photo source:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.thisis.co.uk/274198/binaries/Ghost%2520soldier.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Angler-catches-ghost-camera/article-508043-detail/article.html&usg=__sdup3dyTAC_a-EHLTaUJ1bXGYw8=&h=1662&w=2238&sz=2528&hl=en&start=0&sig2=BTBvfNZ09NNTLdbOs81XOw&zoom=1&tbnid=u9ZPUQg3dlyL7M:&tbnh=112&tbnw=145&ei=-nmeTNK0DJCcsQPwr5zWAQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dghost%2Bsoldier%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1227%26bih%3D541%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=929&vpy=239&dur=768&hovh=193&hovw=261&tx=206&ty=112&oei=-nmeTNK0DJCcsQPwr5zWAQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:0

Original video source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP4GaprkAJg

Works cited:
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Mariner Books, 2009. Print