Hurt Locker

In “The Hurt Locker,” the speaker describes war experiences with a readership that might not understand the emotional toll of war on those who live through it. The speaker utilizes the landscape of war to communicate with the audience, but they must call up images of war that affected and presumably still affect their mental and emotional states. The speaker uses “the hurt locker” (Lines 15, 17) as a place to keep their painful memories and emotional distress, but their attempt to share the images means opening this locker. The speaker conveys not only the actual conflicts endured during combat deployment, but they also convey the figurative and metaphorical conflicts they carry with them internally when they transition from military life to civilian life. In recent years, society has placed a larger focus on not only the mental and emotional well-being of veterans, but also on other individuals. The speaker’s shared experiences communicate that wounds are not always visible and that many veterans carry mental and emotional scars they are hesitant to share with others.