A Poison Tree is a poem written by William Blake that is about a man and his
anger. Tim O'Brien's Enemies is an excerpt about a soldier and his fear of another soldier.
Both Blake and O'Brien write about emotions of a character. In A Poison Tree by
William Blake and the excerpt Enemies by Tim O'Brien, the reader learns that emotions
can be dangerous if they are hidden and not expressed.
William Blake expressed that emotions are better if they are shared and not
hidden. He writes, "I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was
angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow." This quote illustrates how his anger
faded when he expressed it, but his anger got worse when he did not tell his foe. William
Blake goes a step further explaining that more negative emotions come out when one is
hidden. Blake says, "And I watered it in fears. Day and night with my tears." This quote
explains that fear and sadness were shown when anger was hidden. Blake is not the only
one to say that hiding emotions can be dangerous.
Tim O'Brien is also able to show the dangers of hiding emotions. Enemies is an
excerpt from the book The Things They Carried (written by Tim O'Brien) that shows the
dangers of hiding emotions. O'Brien says, "It was mostly in his head. There were no
threats, no vows of revenge, just a silent tension between them that made Jensen take
special precautions." This quote expresses Dave and how he is worried that Lee might do
something since he did not apologize. Jensen kept his emotions hidden to the point where
he could not handle it anymore. "One afternoon he began firing his weapon into the air,
yelling Strunk's name, just firing and yelling," writes O'Brien. The author is showing how
Dave became crazy because he kept his emotions hidden. At the end of the excerpt, Lee
Strunk expressed he had no intention to get revenge on Jensen.
In A Poison Tree by William Blake and the excerpt Enemies by Tim O'Brien, the
reader learns that emotions can dangerous if they are not expressed and are hidden. Blake
used anger to explain how more negative emotions, like sadness and fear, are shown
when it is hidden. Tim O'Brien shows how Dave Jensen's worrying of Lee Strunk caused
him to go crazy. Keeping emotions hidden does not help. As a matter of fact, it makes
things worse. The best thing to do is to tell someone, especially if it is a personal grudge
on them.