War brings nothing but pain and sadness. Soldiers who are sent to fight often come back with PTSD and other mental illnesses from the trauma invoked by war. Humans started war as a primitive way of settling conflicting views. Humans have the ability to start wars over just about anything: land, religion, money or to prove a point. As long as there are negative emotions war will always exist. Hatred, violence and war lead to nothing but pain and suffering. Many wars have been pointless and have led to the death of many soldiers for no justifiable reason. Civilians have no idea of the horrors war produces. War has had the same effect on soldiers throughout history, and in order to fully understand what our soldiers go through you must first understand the text “The Things They Carry” by Tim O’Brien, which explains the physical and psychological trauma that soldiers are put through in war and how they cope.

The story is told is through Jimmy Cross’ point of view. This allows the reader to go inside the mind of the young lieutenant. This allows for the reader to not only notice the background of war getting the historical context but also introduces other elements such as characters and plots. This type of storytelling is unique as it allows the reader to have an understanding of how a soldier during that period of history felt about the war. You are able to see Jimmy’s deepest emotions such as love, guilt, and regret. Jimmy feels love for Martha, his love interest in the text. This love causes Jimmy to feel other emotions such as guilt and regret. Jimmy feels guilty because he is constantly day dreaming about Martha, which causes him trouble in the story as his men die because Jimmy was off in dreamland. One instance in which this happened is when they were checking out a hole, the hole is something that they encounter frequently and check to make sure that there are no traps or soldiers waiting to attack during the night or have any tunnels that would lead to the enemy base. One day when they are waiting for one of Jimmy’s comrades to come up from the hole Jimmy begins to day dream that he and Martha fell into the hole together and became one in the hole. While Jimmy is daydreaming one of his men wanders away from the group and uses the bathroom. A few moments later he is shot straight in the head. Jimmy blames himself for the young man’s death, because it was his daydreaming that go him killed. Jimmy then begins to feel guilty and regrets not paying attention to the young man. This type of trauma can cause PTSD from the regret it can ensue.

Throughout the short story men in Jimmy’s platoon begins to die, and Jimmy reflects on what they were carrying in their sack. Jimmy carries letters from Martha in his sack, he hopes that they are love letters. Martha is an English major and often writes Jimmy poems and talks about her love of Virginia. Martha also signs the letters she writes with the word love which Jimmy knows is just a way she signs off.  Jimmy reflects on what they were carrying often describing their class of weaponry and their supplies referring to the weight of their equipment. For example, he described a machine gunner who carries up to 30lbs of just ammunition. Then begins to describe their personality and what they carry whether it be their extra rations, toothbrush or even comic books to distract them from the war. Jimmy’s distraction is Martha who he constantly day dreams about every time his platoon marches, before he goes to sleep or sometimes even unintentionally. When Jimmy’s platoon members die he often burdens himself with the thought that it was his obsession with Martha that got them killed.   

In the article “Dissent as Therapy:  The Case of the Veterans of the American War in Vietnam” Riques talks about how short fictional stories can help veterans cope with their traumatic experience in the Vietnam War. Soldiers get PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder when they are put through time of increased stress and traumatic scenarios. War can do this to people, constantly in a state of survival your body tenses up making it unable for you to relax.  Soldiers who return home from war often have a hard time relaxing and forgetting about their constant state of alertness. Most soldiers have hard time adapting to the rural calmness that they return home to and as a result often want to reenlist. The next article focus’ on the iRest process this revolves around a series of twelve steps. The books reviews from veterans say that it has helped them overcome their PTSD. The book states that after following these twelve steps you can use them to overcome your PTSD. 

In conclusion war brings nothing but trauma and pain to those involved. Pointless wars that do nothing for our country should not be started. War is almost always bad but sometimes there who words alone cannot reach and we must choose to surrender or die. We send mothers daughters, sons and fathers out to war, and most don’t come home the same or come home at all. We fought for a pointless reasons and ended losing a war that we started. The Vietnam war was not a war we should have started, we lost thousands of soldiers and lost a lot of money. 
