Comparative Essay Example: Love by O’ Brien, Soldier’s Home by Hemingway, and A Perfect Day for Bananafish by Salinger

📌Category: Literature
📌Words: 1151
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 19 April 2022

The characters in the short stories “Love” by Tim O’ Brien, “Soldier’s Home“ by Ernest Hemingway, and “A Perfect Day for Bananafish“ by J. D. Salinger all have something that connects them, which is their traumatized status. All three stories contain characters that suffer from a type of trauma. Why the characters are traumatized and why they won’t speak of it is hidden from the reader. The authors are trying to express how each of the characters deals with their sufferings and how they try to escape them. This affects their way of reacting and interacting with people when they return to their old life. The characters are not able to cope with their current life and that causes them to have tension in their relationships with their loved ones. That also can cause them to act in an unordinary way around people. Not speaking of their suffering causes them to build up feelings which could lead them to a severely mentally damaged stage. Nothing at this point can cure them and they slowly begin to die inside.

The two-paged flash fiction “Love” by Tim O’Brien is a short story where war and unknown traumas destroy the two characters’ relationship that is built off of love. Cross and Martha dated before the war. Years later, they met up to go out. Out of a “flirtatious” gesture, Cross picks her up and ties her to the bed. He puts his hand on her knee and stays like that for the rest of the night. Martha’s reaction wasn’t understandable, “Martha shut her eyes. She crossed her arms at her chest, as if suddenly cold, rocking slightly, then after a time she looked at him and said she was glad he hadn’t tried it. She didn’t understand how men could do those things. ‘What things?’ he asked, and Martha said, ‘The things men do’. Then he nodded.” Martha experienced trauma that resulted from rape. That led to her reacting that way when Cross tied her to the bed, assuming he had sexual intentions. Something also traumatized Cross when he was away for the war, “He got into his car and rolled down the window. ‘Make me out to be a good guy, okay? Brave and handsome, all that stuff. Best platoon leader ever.’ He hesitated for a second. ‘And do me a favor. Don’t mention anything about—’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I won’t’. ” Cross will not speak of what has traumatized him while he was away for the war. The content that is hidden from the reader is that both characters don’t know the extent of each other’s trauma and they don’t speak about it. They both try to escape their trauma by distracting themselves. That can relate to real-life because people that have trauma cannot communicate about it and that can induce tension in their relationship. The unknown cause of mental suffering can lead one to be stressed and incapable of dealing with it. One will be distant from others and that can sabotage their relationships and friendships with their loved ones.

The struggle of the character in “Soldier’s Home “by Ernest Hemingway is obvious because he is incapable of adapting to his life after what he has been through. Kerbs went away to fight in World War 1 and when he returned to his town after the war, he is not who he used to be due to his mental sufferings. The author is trying to get across that even though Kerbs came home to find everything normal and the same, he cannot adapt to his current condition. This is because of the trauma that was caused because of the war. Kerbs is going through a mentally struggling stage even though he came back to his old, normal, and regular life. When Krebs’ mother says she loves him, he cannot say it back, “ ‘Do you love me?’ ‘Uh, huh.’ ‘Do you love me always?’ ‘Sure.’ ‘Will you come over and watch me play indoors?’ ‘Maybe.’ ‘Aw, Hare, you don’t love me. If you loved me, you’d want to come over and watch me play indoors.’ “ War has changed Kerbs’ way of interacting and acting around people. Even the people that are closest to him. His feelings begin to build up and that makes him a confused person. Not talking about it makes him struggle even more to cope with his trauma. What is hidden from the reader is why war has him traumatized. The reader is not given information about why he is mentally struggling to get back to his life before the war. War has destroyed Kerbs. He is not and will not be the person he was before the war. In Krebs' case, war has affected him in a negative and unhealthy way.

“A Perfect Day for Bananafish ‘’ by J. D. Salinger is a short story in which the main character suffers from a trauma that is caused by his war experience. Seymour has returned from the war back to his old life. He is back at home, however, he is incapable of interacting with people and adapting to his war-free society. What the author is trying to get across to the reader is that the character is broken, damaged, and struggling. The reason why Seymour is traumatized by the war is not revealed to the reader. He is on a vacation with his wife but he cannot even enjoy it because he is mentally occupied with his fears and trauma that is slowly beginning to consume him. One day,  Seymour talks about banana fishes to a little girl on the beach, “ ‘The bananafish.’ ‘Oh, you mean after they eat so many bananas they can’t get out of the banana hole?’ ‘Yes,’ said Sybil. ‘Well, I hate to tell you, Sybil. They die.’ ‘Why?’ asked Sybil. ‘Well, they get banana fever. It’s a terrible disease.’ ” Banana fishes relate to Seymour because they seem like normal fish, but once they go inside their banana hole and eat lots of bananas they die. His disorder is what forces him to be incapable of attracting and being aware of people. Even if it was the people whom they love most. Seymour’s unstable mental status has led him to commit suicide at the end of “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”. He released the magazine, looked at it, then reinserted it. He cocked the piece. Then he went over and sat down on the unoccupied twin bed, looked at the girl, aimed the pistol, and fired a bullet through his right temple. Seymour once was a normal ordinary man but the war changed him. He is now suffering from a mental disorder that has killed him literally and mentally.

Through the three stories “Love“ by Tim O’ Brien, “Soldier’s Home“ by Ernest Hemingway, and “A Perfect Day for Bananafish“ by J. D. Salinger, the author keeps vital information from the reader. This kind of information would help the reader understand what trauma it caused to the characters, but the characters do not speak of it. When they return to their life after the trauma, they aren’t capable of overcoming their fears due to a plight that traumatized them. They try to escape their trauma by distracting themselves from their current life.  The characters are forced to live with their trauma because they will not speak of it to anyone. That makes them even more damaged, broken, and unordinary.

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