War is Barbaric

The word barbaric means savage, cruel and heinous. This picture supports my thesis because children are running away in terror from their village that was destroyed by the barbaric soldiers who are casually walking down the road behind them. The children do not know where to run, who to run to, or where to go in order to be safe. These children probably do not have any parents to take care of them anymore; for all they know, all of their family members could have died in the fire behind them. As you can see, there's a little girl running without any clothes on, horrified of what is behind her. The fact that she is naked did not stop her in any way from running down the center of the road, looking for any type of help. The soldiers in the background are very nonchalant in their cruelty. They seem to be looking for the North Vietnamese soldiers while ignoring the children and their needs who are only a few steps in front of them.  This picture reminds me of the book, Tim O’Brien’s "The Things They Carried". In the chapter, "On the Rainy River” Tim was drafted into the Vietnam War. He couldn't believe that he was drafted. He thought he was "too good for this war" (39) and that he had a substantial future ahead of him. In the book Tim wrote, "At some point in mid-July I began thinking seriously about Canada. The border lay a few hundred miles north, an eight-hour drive. Both my conscience and my instincts were telling me to make a break for it, just take off and run like hell and never stop." (42) When I first saw this picture, I instantly thought of this quote. Tim O'Brien wanted to run away and move to Canada so he would not have to serve in the Vietnam War. He would have left his family, friends and future so he wouldn’t have to fight for a war he thought was “dumb.” This quote relates to the picture because as the children are running away in horror from the soldiers, it connects to Tim as he is running away from War. Both Tim and the children are running for their lives, disregarding anything else besides their well-being.