Similarities and Differences Between War Stories

Eisenbeis 1Courtney Eisenbeis
Professor Otto
Composition II
4 October 2015
The stories Soldiers Home by Ernest Hemingway, and The Things They Carried by
Tim OBrien both concern war tragedies and focus on the physical, mental, and emotional points
of the lifestyle of war. Tim OBrien, the author and narrator of The Things They Carried,
describes the physical, mental, and emotional things the American soldiers carried with them
during the Vietnam War. Throughout the story Tim tells what each soldier carries and why. Each
character also describes what they experience from their perspective. Ernest Hemingway, the
author of Soldiers Home, told a story about the main character, Kerbs, who went to war for
two years. When he returned, no one was interested in congratulating him for being a war hero.

At first he did not want to talk about his war experiences, but as time went on and he did, and
people were not interested in his actualities. His stories were true, but not what anyone wanted to
listen to. In order to get people to listen, he had to make up false parts of his stories to make them
appeal to the town. OBrien and Hemingway share similar themes about war era stories, and
similar styles in war soldiers point of view, but in contrast, OBrien focuses on the the physical,
mental, and emotional problems in oneself, while Hemingway focuses on the emotional aspect of
coming home to a not so thankful town.

While both stories have a different setting, they both focus on the main point of the
effects of war on the soldiers and what they go through during and after war. In The Things
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They Carried, Obrien talks about the specific things the soldiers carried such as letters to one
soldier signed Love, Martha, and the list of items carried by most all soldiers. Some of those
items include pocket knives, wristwatches, chewing gum, matches, sewing kits, ect. (OBrien,
1159). Along with things they kept close to them for physical use or mental use to keep them
fighting, they go through hard times of losing crew members to killing people they believe seem
innocent. In The Things They Carried, a crew member was killed like watching a rock fall, or
a big sandbag or somethingjust boom, then down and due to them all being so close, the death
caused the crew members to be greatly affected. In a Soldiers Home, the main character,
Kerbs, is greatly affected by the lack of support and honor given to him by his family and
community members. He [Kerbs] found that to be listened to at all he had to lie which made
him have a greater reaction to the lies about war (Hemingway, 1). His lies led him to believe that
was actually what happened while in the war.

In contrast to the main focus of both stories, even though they are both based around
wars, they both happen in different kinds of settings. In The Things They Carried, the story
takes place on the battlefield in war. It talks about what they go through on a daily basis and the
actual situations they come in contact with. On the other hand, a Soldiers Home is based
around soldiers coming home and how they are greeted and not greeted and how they are treated
in their lives back home by the people in the community they live in. Both stories have a main
focus on how soldiers feel, but it is very different within the placement of where their feelings
are coming from in different situations.

The Things They Carried goes more in depth about the mental and physical aspects of
war because it is a longer story. It includes a more personal level from multiple soldiers who
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travel in a group rather than of just how one person feels about the aftermath of war. It is more of
an ongoing story continuing throughout a live war. In a Soldier’s Home, the story is about
soldiers coming home from war and the absence of honor from the community. In the story a
soldier who comes home later than others is not honored even though he did more to save the
country than those who did not spend as long in war. Kerbs was the man with all the true and
exciting, but scary stories. In order for him to get people to care he had to mentally figure out a
way to get