Effect of War on an individual

The Situation:
Your English class is studying autobiographical text of men who have served in war. For your project, you have decided to write a report about the effects that war have upon the individual. In preparation for writing your report, listen to an account by Tim O’Brien. Then use relevant information from the account to write your report.


War is a difficult situation to go through. It has different effects on those that are in the war. In Ambush by Tim O'Brien, the narrator had a life changing experience of which he would never be able to forget. He killed a young man during the war without thinking about it before killing the young man. He would live his life with regret, shame and a guilty conscience.

The narrator's nine year old daughter had asked him if he has ever killed someone. "You keep writing these war stories... so I guess you must have killed somebody." He was so ashamed of killing the young man that he told her that he didn't. However, he did say "someday I hope she'll ask again... I want to tell her exactly what happened what I remember happening and then I want to say to her that as a little girl she was right."He wanted to tell her the truth, but only when she was old enough to understand what happened.

As an effect of the war the narrator would write war stories. He said he would write them as a way of telling his daughter that she was right. He would write then as a way of remembering what happened the day that he killed the young man. His guilty conscience would make him remember what happened to him. As a result of his guilty conscience he would write the stories to have an ended that he would have preferred to have had himself.

The narrator had regretted killing the young man. He would feel guilty even when Kiowa told him that that it was a “good kill.” Kiowa told the narrator that the young man would have killed him, or the young man would have gotten killed later on. He would see the young man in his thoughts.. He says “I’ll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog and I’ll watch him walk towards me… he’ll walk within a few yards of me and suddenly smile at some secret thought and thin continue up the trail… up in to the fog.” In his thoughts he picture the events of what happened in the way he wished it would have happened. He regretted killing the young man and when he would see him in his thoughts he would see that the young man was alive.

The narrator’s life changed when he killed the young man. He was effected and lived with regret, shame, and a guilty conscience. He would see the man, and write about his experience. War comes with a great deal of effects. War effect vary from people to people. How much of an effect a war has on an individual depends on the mentality that individual has to handle what would or has happened to them.