Morality, Morality, Morality...

Recently, in class we read and discussed the story, The Things They Carried. In class, we read a passage from the story and were told to draw a picture from the reading. I chose to draw a picture the dealt with the ongoing theme and struggle of morality. My drawing illustrated scenes in the short story were Mitchell Sanders, of the short story, finds a dead corpse of a young boy and cuts his thumb off. Sanders, before the cutting of the thumb, claims that there is moral in the boys death. Henry Dobbins questions the morality Sanders see and untimely disagrees with him. This leads me to believe both men were in different states of mind and views morality differently.

To go further, I believe when Sanders cut the young boys thumb; it represented what was right, what was moral. In his mind death of the enemy was right, cutting the corpse thumb, gave him hope, reminding him to never loose a battle and allow the enemy to cut off his thumb. Sanders then proceeded to kick the dead body and “watch the flies scatter”, showing that mentally he has been through a lot and the dead weren’t respected if they weren’t on his side.

On the other hand, Dobbins viewed morality differently. I believe he was disgusted at Sanders and his actions. I believe Dobbins viewed death differently, he believed the dead should be respected. He didn’t see the morality sanders saw. In war, the mind goes through constant change and warped thinking. Death becomes common, killing becomes second nature, and survival is the only option. Before the war, your taught was is morally correct and incorrect, killing and murder were viewed as wrong. It was the immoral thing to do. Yes, there is a difference between the two, but the action is still the same, ending a life. Morally, I believe that Dobbins was going through the mental mind change the war releases on you. But he still didn’t see “no moral”.