Question: Why are Enemies and Friends back to back
in this book? What is the reader supposed to learn about humanity from these
chapters?
Answer:
The
chapters “Friends” and “Enemies” are back to back in the novel, because they’re
related in a way. For one, both focus mainly on two soldiers, Lee Strunk and
Dave Jensen. It shows the relationship between the two, although they’re in
very different stages of their relationship in the chapters. In “Enemies”, the
two men are fighting and are unable to trust one another. In “Friends”, the
chapter that follows “Enemies”, the two men are friends and close again.
They’ve even entered into a pact of sorts that says that if one of them is very
badly injured (as in paralyzed or wheelchair bound), the other will kill him.
Then Strunk gets injured and loses his leg. However he tells Jensen not to
follow through with their deal because he, while in denial, believes that the
doctors will be able to put the leg back on. Jensen agrees with him, although
it seems like he doesn’t believe it, and later Strunk dies from his injuries,
which relieves Jensen because he wouldn’t have to kill Strunk himself. This
chapter shows that the two men are close again and that Jensen, who has
probably had to kill men in the war before, seems like he wouldn’t have been
able to kill Strunk. These two chapters being besides each other shows that the
soldiers, although they sometimes fight, care for each other. The relationships
between the soldiers reminds me a lot of a relationship between siblings or
brothers. They fight sometimes, but no matter what they care for each other,
want the best for one another and could probably never seriously hurt each
other on purpose.
There
are a few characteristics that are mostly exclusive to humans and humanity.
Fear, stress, paranoia, compassion, a sense of duty and forgiveness are
examples of this and they’re shown in the chapters “Enemies” and “Friends”.
During “Enemies”, Jensen, after hurting Strunk during a fight, worries that
Strunk will try and get revenge. Jensen becomes crazy with fear, stress and
paranoia. The book describes this and says, “Jensen couldn’t relax. Like
fighting two different wars, he said. No safe ground: enemies everywhere. No
front or rear. At night he had trouble sleeping—a skittish feeling-- always on
guard, hearing strange noises in the dark, imagining a grenade rolling into his
foxhole or the tickle of a knife against his ear. The distinction between good
guys and bad guys had disappeared for him. Even in times of relative safety,
while the rest of us took it easy, Jensen would be sitting with his back
against a stone wall, weapon across his knees, watching Lee Strunk with quick,
nervous eyes. It got to the point finally where he lost control.” (O’Brien, 63)
and this leads to Jensen having a breakdown. This chapter is trying to explain
to the reader that fear and paranoia can overwhelm and take over a person and
their life causing them to act differently and irrationally. During “Friends”,
Jensen and Strunk are friends again and make a pact that one would kill the
other if he becomes extremely and permanently injured. Jensen is put into this
position when Strunk loses his leg, but Strunk dies before he has to follow through.
It’s obvious that Jensen has no desire to kill his friend, no matter what his
injury is. However, it seems that he would’ve done it, if Strunk hadn’t died on
his own, due to his promise that he made and because it’s what his friend had
wanted. This seems to be telling the reader that sometimes people have to do
things that they don’t want to do because of their sense of duty or compassion.
Both chapters put together show two men recovering from a fight and learn to
trust one another again, which leads to a strong friendship between them. This
is an example of forgiveness and shows the reader that by forgiving and letting
go of old feuds, new and great things have the opportunity to be built.
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