Through the midst of war, human beings can change into "a different kind of creature". There are factors that contribute to this transformation, including: environment and human interaction. Clausewitz defines war as, "an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will". In the history of the 21st century, there have been many wars that have claimed the lives of millions of innocent people, not to mention shaped the lives of its victims and soldiers who survived and lived on to more peaceful times. My thesis is: People are changed emotionally into a "different creature" in the midst of war. Factors such as environment, human interaction, and experiences account for this transformation. I will discuss these factors and attempt to prove how people are changed through war.
A factor that contributes to how a person can change throughout war is their environment. Environment is defined as the circumstances or conditions that surround a person. A war-torn environment can lead to a change psychologically in the way a person thinks and consequentially how they behave. Seeing atrocities and fearing death on a constant basis can really mold a person and have scarring effects. According to J. Glenn Gray in The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle, "death in war is commonly caused by members of my own species actively seeking my end, despite the fact that they may never have seen me and have no personal reason for mortal enmity" (Gray 100). The soldier as a result of being on the battle field and seeing death as a common occurrence sees the chance of being dead with a high probability. The soldiers, who kill, are human beings just like him, who are fighting for a cause, on a grander scale, .
killing other soldier and bystanders along the way even if there is no valid or personal reason to do so. This perhaps can cause a person exposed to this on a regular basis, to be desensitized.
