The Things They Carried: Blog #3

     Hearing Wes Hamilton talked about his war experiences about how he can't even remember his squads real names and only by their nicknames when they started the war. I take it that the war must of been that intense where they could remember their nicknames and not their actaul name. I don't think the men in the book, knew how intense the war was going to be when they first started out. This must have put the men in a lot of emotional thought about the war.
     I think Tim O'Brien put a strong fearless woman as a new chararcter for many reasons; positive and negative reasons. The positive about having a woman in the book shows that woman can do the same things that men can do, instead of working at home. It shows that they can be as strong as the men can be. But, the downside on that is, they can take it way to far where they go crazy, and thats what happened to Mary Anne; Mark Fossies girlfriend. I believe she just had to do everything to just survive in the war because it was a lot to handle back then. She was just enjoying killing people, but before she was a sweet loving woman and was also in love with her boyfriend. It was a horrible change where everybody thought she went crazy. I believe that Tim O'Brien wanted to show what war can do to a person when they are the complete opposite.
     I don't think Tim O'Brien was honest through much of the book. A lot of things he would say was made up because it made the story better. I also remember Wes Hamilton telling the class that he would make up stories just so the people he was telling the stories to, would be like "wow a lot of bad and amazing stuff happened in the Vietnam War" they just wanted that satisfaction to make them look cool, especially when they lived through the war. But, I think it is good thing that they did make up stories because it shows that they went through a lot in the war, it can change a person where they just want to be heard. It just effects people then and now. Wes Hamiton also had things that he remembers from the war: pictures, his helmet cap, and now he has a curl behind his ear so he can remember that he was always had someone backing him up. "Gunner" was always behind him so he always felt safe to trust him. That's why hes alive til this day.