In “The Ghost Soldiers,” O’Brien remembers getting shot for the first time and Rat Kiley treating him very well and saving his life. O’Brien is thankful that Rat Kiley was there when it happened because he seemed to know what he was doing and “Thank God for Rat Kiley. Every so often, maybe four times altogether, he trotted back to check me out. Which took courage” (O’Brien 180). He was sent out for recovery after that and when he goes back to war, he finds out that Kiley was injured and he was sent out too. A replacement, named Bobby Jorgenson, is sent to the company to take Kiley’s place. O’Brien gets shot a second time, but Jorgenson does not know what to do because he is so frightened. While O’Brian was in recovering, he was borderline affected by gangrene. He had to spend a month on his stomach. He is then placed in the battalion supply section because it’s an easier job. Jorgensen then apologizes for taking so much time to help, but O’Brien starts to hold a grudge against him and promises himself he is going to get back at him. When the company goes to visit O’Brien for a routine operation, O’Brien decides to plan a prank on Jorgenson and attempts to get his friends to help him. The only person that will help him with his evil plan is Azar. While Jorgenson is on night duty, O’Brien and Azar make it seem that they are being attacked by doing a number of different things such as lighting flares and moving around the bushes. Azar blames O’Brien for the prank as Jorgenson finally finds both of the guys. Azar apologizes to O’Brien and everything is back to normal with them. As for Jorgenson and O’Brien, they finally make peace in the end because they are now “even.”
This specific section shows that O’Brien starts to hold a grudge against Jorgenson because “…when I got shot the second time, in the butt, it took the son of a bitch almost ten minutes to work up the nerve to crawl over to me” (O’Brien 181). He feels that Jorgenson is inferior and not good enough because he is new. When he is injured, he holds the grudge because he is jealous that he is no longer the one telling combat stories like the rest of the guys are, including Jorgenson. He might not think it is fair for him to be at war and doing what O’Brien wishes he could be doing. Not only that, but O’Brien seems to have a problem with wanting to be the authority figure and having more power. He probably feels inferior because Jorgenson is new and is already at combat. He seems to be especially affected by this because Jorgenson is the one that caused him to go to the battalion supply selection and “I wanted to hurt Bobby Jorgenson the way he’d hurt me” (O’Brien 191). His prank was a test to see how strong Jorgenson can be and if he can handle being in that environment, “He was green and incompetent and scared” (O’Brien 181). Not only that, but he wanted to humiliate him and get him back for not knowing what to do at when his assistance was needed. O’Brien looked down at Jorgenson throughout the chapter and didn’t have any respect for him. In the end, after he played his prank, he ends up finding out that Jorgenson is good enough to be at war and “I hated him for making me stop hating him” (O’Brien 190).
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. 2009. New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2009. 1-233. Print.
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