Finding_Strength_In_Pain

Finding Strength In Pain “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a story based on the grunts of Vietnam. The fear, death, and dishonor experienced by soldiers in Vietnam. What about the heartbreaking struggles of gay generations past and present who have dealt with the war on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the threat of getting Human Immune Virus (HIV), and the “dishonor” of dying from an unknown disease' How many gay men and women have attended the funeral of a significant other or friend who has died of AIDS' Homosexual men and women have felt the threat of dishonor and judgments just like the soldiers of Vietnam. This paper compares the burden of the Vietnam soldier to those living and dying with AIDS. Gays have been in the military as far back as World War II, some may say as far back as the time of Julius Caesar (Goldwater). Tim O’Brien describes the pounds and ounces of the items that every soldier carried in combat as well as the personal weight of the items each man carried. Likewise, the gay soldier also carried the weight of the “P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, vietnam, aids, gay, men, women, soldiers, soldier, military, tell, hiv, don’t, weight, war, time, goldwater, fear, carried, ask, trying, through, since, served, pwa’s, mines, love, land, gays, dishonor, death, about, 80’s, writer, water, wasted, various