ENGL 4: Exploring Fear and Death in War Literature: A Comparison

This essay provides a comparative analysis of the themes of fear and death as depicted in Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" and Ernest Hemingway's "Under the Ridge." The essay explores how both stories portray the psychological impact of war on soldiers, highlighting their experiences and the trauma they endure. "The Things They Carried" focuses on the Vietnam War, emphasizing the soldiers' burdens, fears, and the loss of life, while "Under the Ridge" explores the brutality of the Spanish Civil War and the absurdity of war. The essay examines the soldiers' perspectives on war, their reluctance to engage in combat due to the fear of death, and the impact of war on individuals and society. The conclusion emphasizes the need for peace and the avoidance of war to protect human resources and prevent the suffering experienced by soldiers.

Running head: ENGLISH
English
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The theme of death and fear has been discussed in several pieces of the literature through
the ages. Many poets and authors have highlighted this theme from the end of the soldiers. It is a
very common thing to know that the soldiers are seen as brave people and they sacrifice their
lives for their countries. However, soldiers have seen this aspect of war and battle in a negative
way and it is nothing but a loss of lives and resources. In this essay the short stories The Things
They Carried by Tim O’Brien and Under the Ridge by Ernest Hemingway will be compared on
the theme of fear and death. The ways the soldiers see it and the ways it could be tackled will be
discussed in this paper as well (Armstrong and Tennenhouse 39).
Theme of fear in the novels
The theme of fear is a very important matter of the short story The Things They carried
by Tim O’Brien. This story evidently brings out the experience of wars from the end of the
soldiers and the level of trauma i.e. caused by it. In this short story Tim O’Brien has gone on to
tell his own experience in the battlefield while he was deployed at Vietnam (O'brien: 27). There
were many other soldiers with him in the battlefield whom he counted as friends. He saw many
common Vietnamese people died and numerous soldiers had lost their lives as well. In this story,
he has discussed about his own feelings on war as well. He revealed that the soldiers are forced
to carry several things in the battlefield but there are some things that they carry from their own.
These are the pictures of their near and dear ones, Bible and the utmost fear of their death. This
death could come upon them at any point of time. All these items are reflections of their
personality and identity (O'brien: 27). He has been able to identify some potential things
regarding war experience. In this short story, Time O’Brien has brought out the finality of death

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and futility of war. The idea of fear and death has been exposed in this short story. This story
simply suggests that fear is inevitable in case of wars and they must do some things that would
help the soldiers tackle this problem (Frowe: 33).
On the other hand, the other short story for discussion is the Under the Ridge by Ernest
Hemingway. In this short story, the author brings out the theme of fear and death in the Spanish
civil war (Hemingway: 24). This story is considered as one of the best works of Ernest
Hemingway in which he has brought out the absurdness of war. This is indeed a famous piece
anti-war literature (Armstrong and Tennenhouse 39). In this short story, the scenario that has
been discussed here is regarding the fact that the narrator Edwin does not like the Russian people
at all. It is because one of his soldier friends Paco had been very much afraid of going to war
(Herzog: 20). In trying to avoid the war, he shot his own hand. His hand had to be amputated.
Therefore, the Russian superior soldier officials had shot him dead to set an example before the
people who were frightened to participate in the war (Frowe: 33).
The comparison between these two short stories is very clear. The first story The Things
They Carried portrays the loss of lives and property destruction that took place in the
Vietnamese war. Therefore, some soldiers were terrified to go to war since they always had the
fear of losing their near ones due to the violence in war. So, soldiers did not like to participate in
the war at all (Hemingway: 24). It has also been revealed that the soldiers lost their lives very
frequently and this left their families alone. They were also forced to take some items with them
as well. This suggests that soldiers might be very brave on the battlefield but they does not want
the war to happen (O'brien: 27). If this happens it will surely cause a great damage to the society
and human beings as well. The state always forces the soldiers to get into the war but they are
unharmed by this.

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On the other hand, the story Under the Ridge the author has also brought out the brutality
of war in his own ways. The author considers bravery to be a part of the inner personality of a
person. It cannot be shown only by being brave in the battlefield. When the friend of the narrator
is shot down for being afraid of going to war, it is not all a brave thing at all. Bravery should
have been motivating him to be a savior of the country (Herzog: 20). Similar to the previous
story, the state forces have compelled the soldiers to go for the war so their own revenges could
be taken. This is not at all a good thing to do for the soldiers as states are responsible to take care
of their soldiers. The states should also realize that they should not indulge in wars as it only
destroys the human resources (Robinson: 19). This can be avoided by establishing peace among
nations. The brotherhood among the nations is the only probable way to get off the fear among
the soldiers.
Conclusion
In the concluding note, it can be said that the two short stories have exposed the brutality
of war in certain extents. Both these stories have highlighted the fear that these soldiers go
through. Once the soldiers experience this feeling, they become reluctant to indulge in the wars.
They have the first hand experience of wars and they know how it can damage the human
resources. They become very much afraid and avoid the wars in the first priority. It can be
advised that the wars must be stopped and only the peace could be established in the world.

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References and Bibliography
Armstrong, Nancy, and Leonard Tennenhouse. The Violence of Representation (Routledge
Revivals): Literature and the History of Violence. Routledge, 2014.
Flores, David. "Memories of War: Sources of Vietnam Veteran Pro‐and Antiwar Political
Attitudes." Sociological Forum. Vol. 29. No. 1. 2014.
Frowe, Helen. The ethics of war and peace: an introduction. Routledge, 2015.
Hemingway, Ernest. Under the Ridge. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1939.
Herzog, Tobey C. Vietnam war stories: innocence lost. Routledge, 2017.
O'brien, Tim. The things they carried. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.
Orwell, George, and G. O. Lemur. Looking back on the Spanish War. Lemur Books, 2014.
Robinson, Paul. Just war in comparative perspective. Routledge, 2017.