Exploration Four Sierra Shamhart

One of the themes I have noticed in the last 5 chapters is the need for soldiers to feel like they belong and have purpose in the war. This theme is important to the book because it shows the readers the evolution from when the characters arrive in the war, when they wish they had never been drafted. To now when they feel like they need to be there and they need to have an active role in the war as well.
This theme is most prevalent in the chapter Ghost Soldier. When the character Tim is in the infirmary healing from his gunshot wound. He is feeling down because he doesn’t feel like he is apart of the war anymore. He feels like he isn’t on the same level as his team because he’s not out in the field being active. During this thought process in the chapter Ghost Soldiers O’Brien wrote, They were still my buddies, at least on one level, but once you leave the boonies, the whole comrade business gets turned around. You become a civilian. You forfeit membership in the family the blood fraternity, and no matter how hard you try, you cant pretend to be part of it (O’Brien 185). In this quote we as readers can see the struggle that the character Tim is feeling as he has to sit out of the war because he is hurt. We can see that now he feels he needs to and wants to be out in the war with his team. Although we can look back to the chapter On The Rainy River when that same character Tim was dreading the war and wanted no part in it. We see how his thoughts and feelings have changed.  Another quote that really emphasizes Tim’s feelings is when he is thinking about what war was like before he was hurt. In the chapter Ghost Soldiers Tim O’Brien wrote, “That’s how I felt— like a civilian— and it made me sad. These guys had been my brothers. We’d loved one another (O’Brien 185). I think this quote is very important to the development of the character Tim. After this moment I as a reader could really understand him and I feel that I finally completely know this character.

Guides for Medic use in the war. (List)

One of the research questions I’ve had so far from this book is how does a soldier get assigned to be a medic and are they already working in the medical field before the war?  I wonder this because we know Bobby Jorgenson was late coming to help Tim when he was shot which caused Tim to go into shock. Bobby Jorgenson said to Tim that he was too scared to act quickly it was all new to him. That is what sparked my question about how a soldier is assigned to be a medic and mostly I wanted to know if the medics already had a background in the medical field. According to Google Arts and Culture, “ Medics were sometimes chosen for their medical expertise; more often they had to be trained from scratch. Some were conscientious objectors who opposed the taking of life and were assigned this role as an alternative to a combat role. (Scrogham)  This response answered both parts  of my question perfectly. The Google Arts and Culture article I read titled Combat Medics of WWII was written from a memorial called the Medics Collection. This response told me that some people had background in the medical field but most didn’t which really surprised me. Also I learned that people were picked to medics because either they opposed war based on religion or other things, or it was random selection.

Works cited 

 “List of Medical & Related Field & Technical Manuals.” WW2 US Medical Research Centre, 2018, www.med-dept.com/resources/list-of-medical-related-field-technical-manuals/.
Scrogham, Hugh. “Combat Medics of WWII - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, Google, 2016, artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/qALSyyD-LpymLg.