O'Brein Carries Guilt

           O’Brien the writer (the O’Brien in the book) is clearly trying to tell the reader that soldiers have a lot of things to carry during the war.  These things range from actually war materials to emotions.  During our discussion in class we realized O’Brien is carrying a lot of guilt because he killed someone.  I then started to realize that O’Brien is trying to get rid of this guilt through telling the story to us.  The problem O’Brien is facing is the more he talks about the man he killed the more he thinks about it.  O’Brien starts thinking about the person this man was and the family he had before he was killed.  O’Brien is now making the load he has to carry even more because he keeps thinking about this man he killed.  It seems like O’Brien is in a never ending cycle of guilt.  No matter what he does he cannot get this man out of his head.  The reader then realizes the true pain of war and the psychological toll it has on the body.  Everyone can see the physical pain war has through the injuries, but it is hard to understand what goes on in a soldier’s head.  O’Brien has finally found a way to connect to the reader and show them the stress and baggage someone has, that is fighting in a war.  I believe that was one of O’Brien’s major goals in telling this story to us.