Instances of behaving abnormally, oddly and finally going mad are many. Lieutenant Cross is consumed by guilt, O'Brien plots revenge against neglectful Dr Jorgenson, Rat Kiley is convinced mutant bugs are out to get him. In Enemies, Dave Jensen is hounded by the fear that Lee Strunk will get even with him for his brutal attack. In the end, he breaks his own nose with a pistol, reflecting the idea that the Enemies of the title are not simply within and without his own camp. Perspectives change in war, and that is why O'Brien insists that a war story has no moral.
War blurs boundaries so that the line between friend and foe, fear and courage becomes hazy.
In On the Rainy River, he describes the duplicity of war - the fear of war itself but also the fear of fleeing war and losing the respect of family and friends. I would not be brave. Life and death are similarly indistinct in war. The nature of identity surfaces here, the soldiers speaking of personality changes and the feeling of being separate from their former selves. By contrast, death's nearness accentuates life, making many who survive value more highly their existence and the world around them.