Are Achievements Revealed In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

People’s achievements should be judged according to how much they help others because although all achievements should recognized, people who aid others in achieving their goal deserve more positive feedback because it encourages the act of being courageous. Someone who achieves a personal goal should definitely be recognized for his/her’s feat, but one who founds an organization to help refugees, or someone who tackles a man who was about to throw a grenade, should not only receive attention, but they deserve to be honored in a more dignified way than someone who is a daredevil. People’s achievements should be judged according to how much they help others because courageous acts that better the world need to be focused on more than courageous acts that look “cool”, the people who sacrifice themselves in acts of valor influence will future generations the most, and people who complete these courageous, and sometimes traumatic actions, need the most support. Overcoming an extreme athletic or academic feat is seen as entertaining and does deserve some praise, but what individuals should be more focused on, are the people who sacrifice their lives and time to help others. Recently, on the front page of a news site, there was a teenager who had just completed climbing the highest peaks in four continents, but there wasn’t any story of how twenty-six year old, Maggie Doyne, moved to Nepal and adopted forty children to save them from suffering on the streets. The prominence that social media has in today’s world is naturally focused on what events are happening in present time. But the issue is that there are ten million views on a video of Usain Bolt running his fastest race, but only a local news story may cover a video where a child is seen pushing his friend away from an oncoming car. On a more global scale, where there are so many issues, people who desire to do something adventurous should strive to help end one or more of the many problems occurring in the world. Humans’ achievements should be judged according to how much …show more content…
If someone who just fought in war and came home to not many friends or family at all, he/she may feel depressed or angered when they see an Olympic skier on TV doing interviews, or reality show celebrities gracing magazine covers getting all the positive media. Men and women who have served in the military deserve to be proud of what they have accomplished and sacrificed out of their fierce determination to protect their country, but many feel as though their actions are not recognized. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien tells a story of how one of the men in his platoon, Norman Bowker, went home to only his house and car, and was desperately seeking comfort as he was naturally scarred from the horrors of war. O’Brien explains how hard it was for him to go from a full life of opportunity to the war, and so when he came back, the emptiness he felt made him realize there wasn’t anything to live for; Shortly after coming home, Bowker killed himself. People who achieve something that puts others safety before themselves, not only deserve recognition for their doings, but others must realize that by supporting those who do good, will help those realize that their hard work and sacrifice is worth