“The Yellow Birds” by Kevin Powers is a novel about modern warfare and the pressures soldiers face during and after war. It is also a novel about the friendship between two men: John Bartle and Daniel Murphy. They are both from Virginia, and although they don't know each other before enrolling, they are brought together by their sergeant, mainly because they are both soldiers and the same age; Bartle is twenty-one and Murph is only eighteen. Murph is tasked with looking after Bartle, but he doesn't see this as a blessing, on the contrary, he "didn't want to be responsible for anyone" and he thought some of the things Murph did were "irritating". Although their friendship begins with them both being in the same place at the same time, it evolves into something much more meaningful than that over the ten months they have known each other. The two boys are constantly together and become each other's anchor in a completely unfamiliar environment offering "constant comfort." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Despite, or perhaps because of, Bartle's ill-considered promise to LaDonna Murphy, promising to "keep [her] son ​​safe," Bartle feels a sense of kinship and family with Murph. He realizes that he shouldn't have made that promise to "bring him home", and so he instantly feels more responsible for himself because he would have to live with the guilt of letting his mother down. This was also a factor in his decision to forge Murph's letter, in order to keep his promise for as long as possible. Both boys have limited contact with anyone at home and cannot describe to their families the reality of their experiences, instead giving them "reassurances that were as much for us as for them", so they rely on each other. 'other for emotional support. that they would normally get from their family. As the novel progresses, we learn that Murph and Bartle do everything together and only focus on protecting each other from everything they are going through, especially the mental stress they face due to constant fighting . Bartle's promise to Murph's mother becomes a factor in the strength of the "brotherhood" they feel for each other as Murph becomes increasingly disengaged with the war surrounding him and Bartle must do everything he can to try to keep him safe. This total trust that the boys feel towards each other strengthens their bonds of friendship. They know they can depend entirely on each other and that they have someone there who understands what each other is going through. They discover each other's lives before the war; who their friends were at home, who their girlfriends are. They share care packages and become the center of each other's memories, trying to have normal conversations like they would at home so that "for a moment [they] forget [their] predicament and are just two friends drinking under a tree. talks about the uselessness of war for the soldiers who fight it; they would “return to a city that had fought this battle every year.” Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times explains this as a "loop in which there is neither destination nor progress", which is reflected in the behavior of both men. This in turn causes the men to think about what they are really fighting for, and it ends up being for each other, solidifying their mutual trust and strengthening their friendship. Being a soldier requires that everyone has atotal trust in his superiors and in the “men to [their] left and to [their] right.” This need for absolute trust to survive intensifies relationships and consequently forms bonds between men much more quickly than in normal situations. This is reinforced by the fact that they are forced to “stay awake, on amphetamines and in fear” for such long periods in extremely confined places. Bartle and Murphil illustrate the reality that war can "bring people together more than any other activity on earth." Studies have shown that sharing these intense situations, being under enemy fire or killing a human being, is what bonds soldiers so strongly. In a kill or be killed situation, Bartle and Murph simply focus on protecting each other. Their common fear of dying and their obsession with not becoming the “thousandth death” also bring them together. They are both pessimistic and expect to die. They are able to interact with each other in areas where they cannot communicate with Sterling. Murph and Bartle understand each other better than other soldiers and more than a normal civilian ever could. They wanted to achieve the same goal: they didn't intend to go kill other people, they just wanted to escape the small lives they had in America, they wanted to achieve something bigger for themselves . They also both suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, even before they return home, with Bartle having to take care of the "naive and emotionally fragile 18-year-old" as Kakutani puts it; as well as having to deal with his own traumas. They spend a very long time in each other's company, leading them to believe that if they "remained ordinary, [they] would not die." Powers shares his own perspective on survival through Bartle, stating in an interview with GQ: “Why did I survive? I am clearly no more worthy of survival than these people.” This is exactly how the protagonist feels when he returns home without his friend. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized paper now from our expert writers. Get a Custom Essay In conclusion, the friendship of the two protagonists in 'The Yellow Birds' begins because they are forced to spend all their time together. Throughout the novel, they learn to rely on each other for emotional support, companionship, and family bonds. Friendships like theirs are born from facing death together, fighting side by side. Murph seems as much alive in Bartle's mind when he is dead as when they were together in Iraq. At night, he dreams of their time in Iraq, dreaming "Murph was there, Murph and me." Works Cited Kakutani, M. (September 10, 2012). In Iraq, two friends linked by fear and disillusionment. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/books/in-iraq-two-friends-bonded-by-fear-and-disillusionment.html Koenig, R. (2015). The friendship of Bartle and Murphy in The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. In D. Mohr & P. ​​Wolfgang (Eds.), Kevin Powers: A critical companion (pp. 23-32). University of South Carolina Press. Levasseur, S. (2015). Living in Trauma: Surviving the Battlefield in Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds. In D. Mohr & P. ​​Wolfgang (Eds.), Kevin Powers: A critical companion (pp. 50-62). University of South Carolina Press. Malmgren, C. (2017). “The memory of his son was a phantom limb”: grief and trauma in The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. Review: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 58(2), 138-148. doi:10.1080/00111619.2016.1154683Mertens, S. (2014). Survival, friendship and the trauma of war in Kevin's The Yellow Birds, 5(2), 51-66.