Sometimes I think about how different B.J. and Hawkeye's lives were before they met and probably after they parted.
Hawkeye comes from this small town, his father is a poor country doctor who would take kittens for payment. He worked in tourist hotels and other jobs to afford school. When he lived in Boston not only was he enthusiastic about his residency, but he also worried about money and cited it as a reason why he didn't propose to Carlye.
(Hawkeye's background can be inconsistent at times. A practice gets mentioned once or twice, but the most consistent background seems to be worked in a hospital in a city before being drafted.)
Then you have BJ who came from three generations of doctors (and probably not small town doctors), went to Standford and came first in his class. Belonged to a country club, lived in the suburbs, bought beach front property. He even had a connection that offered to get him out of the draft, but he believed in the system and refused. He gets upset when Peg has to work at a cafe where their friends often go.
Rambles under the cut...
B.J. being such a nonconformist with his mustache, suspenders, pink shirt, and motorcycle makes me wonder if the seed of it was planted long before he got drafted, and how he'll settle back into this structured suburban upper/middle class life. I think he mentions planning to open his own practice early on, but considering all his research and creativity in the O.R. I wouldn't be surprised if he wants a fast paced hospital position, or to get a second certification.
B.J.: we could see each other at conferences.
And Hawkeye immediately shooting this down saying neither of them are the type to attend. B.J. agrees, but I think B.J. IS actually the type to attend. B.J. from the very beginning has been shown to be ambitious and competitive. He's the one always reading journals and bringing it into the O.R. Even in the middle of Korea he wants to stay at the top of his game. Hawkeye has blown off confences because he believes what is being taught will not be actively useful to the type of surgery he's doing in a MASH unit until he's proven wrong. He keeps up with his reading, but he isn't looking at these experimental techniques and seeing ways to apply them like B.J. is, or when he does it's because B.J. has spoken about the technique he read about and Hawkeye will have B.J. preform it as he has the most understanding of it.
I think for B.J. being a doctor was an expectation and a career goal. He wanted to be the best at it because there's legacy behind him and he's a naturally competitive person. The war put his life off it's trajectory, but it might have set him up for a more fulfilling career in the future where he'll be able to pursue what he's interested in rather than what's expected as the optimum career option, and with his drive and ambition he'll probably succeed. He'll always resent the war for what it took from him though.
Hawkeye has an ego about his own skills, but it comes from often being the smartest, quickest guy in the room. He's not ambitious and he's not as competitive about being a doctor as B.J. and Charles accuse him of being (both of whom are often putting themselves in competiton with with Hawkeye). He doesn't chase fame, but he resents those he views as less talented getting accolades (or in Charles case early on, caring more about ego/accolades than about patient care). Being a doctor is a vocation. He'd do it rich or poor. He hates being in the army doing surgery in such bad conditions, but he'll work with an injured finger, he'll force himself to go in a cave, he'll turn down a general offering him a position in Tokyo because he wants to be in the place he'll do the most good. Radar accuses him of being a hypocrite when he gets angry that Radar wants to stay thinking the 4077 can't survive without him. He says if their positions were reversed Hawkeye would stay too.
This isn't to say Hawkeye is particularly brave or noble (he has his moments as every character in the show does), he's simply unable to ignore the part of him that is a doctor. A part so intrinsic to him his girlfriend left him because she didn't want to be second to it.
In the end Hawkeye, who is the hot shot chest cutter at the beginning of the war will probably settle in his little hometown with no desire for a big career which he may have pictured when he first went to the city. He wants to know his patients and form bonds and connections with them because it's impossible for him to be impartial and removed after his experience and traumas as an army surgeon.
Is the only place they could have been together war torn Korea? It's not that I think they'd ever lose affection for each other, but if they did try to build lives together or closer to one another what would they each be willing to change or give up?
I like when I see everyone in the 4077th rage in sync. I don't know how to describe it, but it makes them all so real. I'd be mad too if all I got to eat was shitty army powdered food, the mail travelled at 2km/year, and after 30 hours in the OR we can't sit down and have a drink of coffee because there are mysteriously 100 different tedious duties everyone has to tend to that no one would have to do if there wasn't a war on.
It isn't just the main characters either, it's everyone, and I love the show for letting that happen. In many shows they'll let side characters have emotions, but they'll be minor so they don't take the spotlight away. In MASH, everyone gets to be pissed, and so they should!!!! The army is terrible, no one wants to have to do what they're forced to for tiny pay and uncomfortable living spaces, and to top it all off, everyone wants to go home. The anger is warranted.
Small differences like that really made MASH what it is, and I love it so sososoosososososos much dude MASH we dream about you
Losing my fucking mind: was walking through Boston Commons. Saw a guy with a MASH hat sitting in the grass with his bike so I said âhey I like your hat!â and I show him my BJ and Hawkeye stickers and my âletâs vaccinate Radarâ tattoo.
Dude hits me with âoh yea my grandpa wrote the showâ BROTHER WHAT!!!!! I literally say âYouâre fucking kidding me LARRY GELBART?? WAS YOUR GRANDPA???â heâs like âyea this hat is from him! Iâm a Gelbart!â Absolutely floored. Stunned.
I think one of the hundred reasons âwhere thereâs a will thereâs a warâ gets me so hard is that itâs the only episode where itâs just âyeah both the a plot and b plot are about Hawkeye and BJ going through it over each other but alone and unlike other episodes where they have a cathartic conversation or moment of connection, in this one they never really connect, they just Go Through Itâ....like in true âHawkeye doesnât hear BJ over the sound of the chopperâ fashion Hawkeye has no idea BJ has gone through this deeply stressful emotional journey of thinking heâs not only lost him but killed him and BJ has no idea hawkeye is not only not mad at him but has spent what he thought might be the final moments of his life thinking of how to leave BJ something special enough to convey how he feels about him....they just donât know
and when Hawkeye gets back they still talk past each other.... BJ is like âremind me to give you a kiss in the morningâ and Hawkeye is like âomg Iâve been so stupid...of course heâs thinking about his wife and child....and Iâve been trying to leave him something of MINE in my will but I have nothing to offer him, Iâm gonna leave his daughter evidence that heâs the best guy in the worldâ.....meanwhile BJ, half asleep and crashing from an adrenaline rush, has just confessed to wanting to kiss him.....crazy
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