Loneliness

In the chapter Ghost Soldiers, O'Brien gets shot twice, the second time leading to a great deterioration of his health. As a direct result, he was taken to a headquarters site, where he quickly adapted to the lack of battle and the safety it provided. He became "a civilian" and no longer had quite the same bond with his platoon when they came to headquarters for a break and to visit. O'Brien "forfeit[ed] membership in the family, the blood fraternity, and no matter how hard you try, you can't pretend to be a part of it." For O'Brien, this was a tough realization; the separation left him with a sense of loneliness and sadness. When Sanders tells O'Brien he is no longer with the group, he feels a "sense of pure and total loss." Sanders was clearing up the fact that "they were soldiers, [O'Brien] wasn't." I think that this can easily be connected to situations everyone experiences. For instance, when I was in the second grade, my family moved to Virginia; before the sixth grade, we moved back to Indiana. Moving back was difficult because everyone here had changed so much; I was no longer truly connected to my friends in the way I used to be. However, situations don't always have to be as huge as a move. They can simply be a vacation, or not seeing a friend for a while. O'Brien gives us a chance to empathize with his feelings of abandonment and fear of losing his friends by making what happened to him relatable.