Three Kings vs The Things They Carried

After reading “The Things They Carried” and watching “Three Kings” my perspective on the wars have completely changed. I think Tim O’Brien really gives good descriptions of war. He tells the readers what a true war story is vs a false one. He gives the details on war and the personal experiences and feelings, while “Three Kings” shows the reader what O’Brien was feeling.

 For example, O’Brien would talk about how they had to watch for mortars and had to be careful for were they would step. In “Three Kings” just as the tear gas goes off you see the mortars and the civilians running around just trying to get out of the gas while the military men make sure they watch their every move for enemies and especially for mortars. Also, O’Brien talks about how he would go into the towns and just destroy everything; the people, their homes, their land. WHen one of their men were killed in a town they went crazy and just shot everywhere. When the three men go into the town looking for the gold they don’t let anyone stop them. They bomb down buildings and break down doors just to retrieve the gold.

Personally, I would never think about war like this and know how harmful the war is. The men killing people to do a certain job or just for fun because they hurt one of their own men. I thought “Three Kings” was a particularly true war story because it doesn’t follow all of O’Brien’s criteria but it does help visualize what war could be like.