Human Instinct in Things They Carried Fear is a strong emotion that constantly torments the minds of men in Tim O'Brien's book, The Things They Carried. Fear is handled by different men in different ways. However, through the characters of Dave Jenson and Lee Struck in "Enemies" and "Friends", two opposite reactions can be seen. HCAL defines cultural studies as something that can “…either create community or cause division and alienation” (240). Using cultural studies it is possible to analyze these two stories to understand why these two men react differently to the same emotion in different circumstances. In "Enemies", Jenson and Struck fight over a missing switchblade that evolves from a broken nose to a broken mind. The two men become enemies; they not only have to face the fear of war, but also the fear of each other. Jenson was the most affected by this. He began to lose his sanity observing both the enemy lines and his own men not trusting anyone. In an attempt to justify the fight with Struck, he breaks his nose screaming and firing rounds of ammunition. The fear that builds up inside Jenson leads him to be alienated from the rest of the army. Unlike the previous story, in "Friends", fear helps bring Jenson and Struck closer together. Both are afraid of returning from the war dismembered in some way. To prevent this, the men make an agreement that if one of them is hurt in such a way, the other will kill him. Thanks to this pact, men are united by a common trust. This helps calm the fear and allows them to not be so afraid of the war. These two stories show how fear can cause the bond of friendship and community or hatred to lead to alienation. The two characters, Lee Strunk and Dave Jenson, show how a man's reaction to fear can affect him. In the story "Enemies", Jenson slowly begins to isolate himself to keep away from Strunk. Consider everyone as the enemy who builds his trenches near the perimeter and always keeps his back covered. This constant fear ate away at Jenson until he lost his sanity. In "Friends", Jenson and Strunk deal with fear in a more positive way.