In response to The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien
How does Tim O'Brien's injury impact his relation with his platoon?
**Platoon - a military unit that usually consists of a lieutenant and sections**
O'Brien gets shot twice while he was at war, which is what he discusses in the chapter "The Ghost Soldiers". The first time that he got shot, it was out by Tri Binh, which is in Vietnam. He got shot in the side, and fell on top of Rat Kiley's lap, which O'Brien said was a good thing because Rat Kiley was the medic in his platoon. He was immediately treated and then sent to the hospital later that night. It was in mid-December, 26 days after being shot, when O'Brien went back to Alpha Company and joined his unit. However, when he got back, he got news that Rat Kiley had been wounded and sent to Japan.
Bobby Jorgenson took Rat Kiley's place as the new medic. But Jorgenson was nowhere near to being as skilled or brave as Rat Kiley. When O'Brien got shot the second time, it was in the butt along the Song Tra Bong (which is a river). He laid there, screaming for help, but it took a while before Jorgenson had the guts to crawl over to him and help him. Even then, it was too late. He was sloppy with the patch job and did not know anything about shock, which caused O'Brien to go through a lot of suffering. Later on his butt wound began to rot. He wanted to get revenge on Jorgenson.
When staying at the hospital, he was unable to walk , sit, or sleep. The only position he could stay in was laying flat on his stomach. Due to his wound getting an infection, he has been having to spread some time of antibacterial ointment on it three times every day. It was that time that they thought that O'Brien had had enough injuries, so he was transferred to the Headquarters Company, which was the battalion supply section.
After being taken away, O'Brien no longer felt close to the soldiers that he had spent the past months with. Though O'Brien had never wanted to be in the war in the beginning, having spent so much time with his platoon and then being taken away from them cause him to want to be a part of the unit again. He had build many relationships and close friends. He states that "You become part of a tribe and you share the same blood-you give it together, you take it together"(O'Brien.192). When he was no longer a part of the unit, he envied their relationships and closeness, since that went through more experiences of war without O'Brien.
At one point, as mentioned earlier, O'Brien wanted to get revenge on Jorgenson for "making" him go through so much pain and having to deal with an unhealed wound for the rest of his life. He tried to get Mitchel Sanders, who was one of the men that was in the platoon he used to be in, to help him with getting revenge, but Sanders completely defended Jorgenson and stated how he was doing a lot better and was helping many of the men stay alive. However, O'Brien would not budge, most likely not worrying about his own morality. Sanders told O'Brien that he wouldn't understand since he was no longer part of the group. O'Brien was no longer as close to all the the men as Jorgenson was, even if he had spent a longer time with them. O'Brien felt betrayed.
I'm glad you went in depth into the chapter, not many people have done that. You provided background knowledge for anyone reading this instead of assuming the reader knows what you're talking about. I felt bad for Tim in this chapter when he was hospitalized and missed parts of their journey. He missed Rat Kiley’s breakdown and wasn’t able to experience what was going on in the group while he was gone. He had to have the stories told to him and didn’t have his own experience of it all, so he couldn’t fit pieces together on his own. He felt disconnected and honestly was probably so used to these men he’s been with and bonded with, it probably felt foreign to him to be away under the circumstances.That being said, I agree with your points and I feel like you tackled the question really well.
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