Enemies and Friends

I love how the stories Enemies and Friends intertwine with one another. These two stories are about how two men, on the same team, become enemies and then friends again. Hence, the titles of the stories. These two stories show how much war can effect people.


   The fight between Jensen and Strunk, proves how hard war can be. They fought over a jackknife, which to me was not necessary at all. It was a waste of time and energy. I felt so bad for Strunk, when Jensen broke his nose, hitting him repeatedly without mercy. That had to be a horrible sight and feeling. While Strunk is one to get his nose fixed up, Jensen becomes a little paranoid. He should be! First off, you’re fighting a war, in a foreign country. Shouldn’t you be focused on trying to stay alive, instead of a jackknife? If I was in that situation, I would’ve been like, look man I’m trying to stay alive! So if and when we get back home, we can fight all day and night over it, but right now isn’t the right time! Maybe, I’d get beaten up after saying that but, I stood my ground! When Strunk gets back, Jenson becomes like crazy super paranoid! He watches everything that Strunk does, and he watches everywhere he goes. So finally one night, he borrows a pistol and uses it to break his own nose in order to make things even between them. The next morning, Strunk admits that he did steal Jensen’s jackknife! What is wrong with him? I felt bad for him at first, but now I think he kind of deserved that whopping from Jensen!


   In the story Friends, Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk learn to trust each other. They actually make a pact, that says that if one of them gets hurt or wounded, the other would kill him and put him out of his misery. That’s some serious friendship! It’s almost funny that their friendship was based on beating each up and getting their noses broken. One day in October, Lee’s lower leg gets blown off by a mortar round. I guess Dave had to get ready to fulfill their agreement, when all of a sudden Lee started to beg him not to kill him. I totally did not expect that. I also didn’t expect Dave to be so nice and gentle with him. I thought he was going to kill him, when he bent down beside him. But instead, he promised that he wouldn’t. So later, Strunk was taken away by a chopper to get fixed up, again. But, Dave and the others learned that Lee passed away. Dave was very relieved to hear the news and to my surprise, so was I. I wasn’t happy that he passed away, I was just happy that Jensen didn’t have to carry out their agreement. But would he actually do it? After hurting Lee, being paranoid about it, then hurting himself, would he actually end his life? I really don’t believe he could have went through with it. I don’t think him or any of the others could deal with another bad image from the war, on their minds, hearts, and conscience. War really can have an affect on people, and I’m so grateful that I’m not apart of it!