The Ghost Soldiers

For this Summary and analyzation I chose “The Ghost Soldiers” written by Tim O’Brien. This story is about two different instances where in Tim was shot. The first time he was hit on the side and was lucky enough to land in his friends lap who also happened to be the medic. He talks about what it feels like to think that you may be dying and the things that randomly pass through your mind as he laid there. He recalls how amazing it was that his friend kept checking on him and caring for him, even though he had to risk his own life to make his way over to him each time. Tim then writes how his friend and comrade almost seemed to hug him as he put him in the chopper to send him off to the hospital. He recalls that there was almost no pain, and he remembers how thankful he was to have a friend like that.

After recovering in the hospital for a short time, Tim gets sent back to the front lines to rejoin his company. He finds out that his friend had been shot and was off recovering same as he had been. So when Tim was shot the second time a new kid was the medic. He was terrified and took forever to get over to him. Even then, the kid was so scared that he botched the repair job on his wound and almost let him die of shock. The wound became infected and wouldn’t seem to heal. Tim had to be put on the back lines away from the fighting and away from his friends. He hated the kid for not caring for him correctly and swore he would get him back. And when the time came he did just that.

When his old company came in for downtime he hatched a plan to mess with the kid and scare him half to death. Most didn’t agree but he found one that would help. They set up sound devices and flares to scare him while he was on watch duty. All in all, in the end they didn’t trick him and he didn’t get too scared. Tim felt bad about what he had done to try and get back at him and they ended up becoming friends.

This entire story is about trust and earning it. He completely trusts the friend that he had been fighting along side with for who knows how long, and was ok with him leaving him there all bloody to go fight. He knew that he could trust him and his decisions. However he didn’t even get a chance to know the new guy before he had no choice but to leave his life in his hands. So when the guy is so scared from being new that he screws up and almost lets him die, Tim decided to hate him forever. If it was his friend that he had fought along side with he, wouldn’t have been mad or resentful. He would have died peacefully and thankful for the help that his friend tried to give him. It was simply because he didn’t know him or trust him yet that he decided to hate him.

For more on Tim O’Brien: www.timobrien.net

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