Coping Mechanisms in War

At first, while watching The Three Kings, I did not really notice any similarities in the movie to the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. However, as the movie went on, I realized there was an underlying theme that reminded me strongly of The Things They Carried.

War is a difficult thing to deal with. It is harsh, painful, sad, sometimes disgusting, and it changes people. In both The Three Kings and The Things They Carried, the characters experience emotional, physical, and mental pain unlike anything most people will ever experience. What was interesting to me was the similar ways that the characters dealt with these horrible experiences. The Three Kings is a funny movie, and though it may seem like this is only for entertainment purposes, I realized that the characters were using humor and nonchalance to deal with difficult events. By being casual and sarcastic, the situations they found themselves in did not seem so bad.

The same is true in The Things They Carried. At one point, after finding a dead man, the soldiers all pretend to greet him and they sit down and offer him food. Pretending nothing is wrong, and finding humor in a horrible situation, is the only way to possibly deal with the death and destruction all around them.

I think these two war stories are a great example of human nature. I think many people put in that situation would find themselves making jokes and slowly becoming immune to the things happening around them. It just shows that in any situation, nothing can be taken too seriously if you want to stay sane.

Comments

[Carmen]

This is a very insightful analysis, and I never really looked at it from that angle. I agree that both the movie and book used comedy to cover up the real tradgedy going on around them. I think that this makes the viewer or reader really take a step back from what is going on and see the coping methods of the soldier and how they are dealing with the hardships of everyday life.

[Lucy G.]

I really liked this similarity you found. After finishing The Things They Carried, I forgot about the soldiers' macabre sense of humor. I took the humor in The Three Kings more literally, but you definitely have an interesting interpretation that made me think about the movie in a new light.

[Maya B-M]

I agree that the soldiers cope by joking around in depressing situations. This introduced me to the idea that it is human nature to make jokes in tough times. Jokes are like the soldier's break from the war.

[Eric B.]

I thought you made a really good connection between the two stories and human nature. If they took their jobs and the environment that they were in too seriously, then they would have a great chance of becoming mad. For example, some of the characters in The Things They Carried, recognized that they were becoming mad and would do crazy things to bring them back to reality. Without putting some light into a situation, soldiers could be traumatized even worse.

[Cai L.]

I think to the reader the way the soldiers shrug off such horrendous situations sometimes seems morbid, like the soldiers have seen it so many times they don't even care anymore. In reality if the soldiers were to care to their fullest ability every time some one was injured they would be incapacitated by the fear of death. Not just their own death though, but that of those around them.

[Stephanie S]

In my paper I argued the opposite about the humorous effect Three Kings has on the viewer. However, after reading your analysis, I agree with your point. It never occurred to me that the soldiers try to cope through their hard lives with humor. It makes sense that people who view such horrible experiences at war try to use humor as a way to take them away from the brutality of it.