
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 Vietnam war was brutal and killed thousands of American soldiers. In “The Things They Carry” the story is told is through Jimmy Cross’ point of view. This allows the reader to go inside the mind of the young lieutenant experiencing first-hand what Jimmy goes through and what it’s like to be a soldier. 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 and how they are able to cope. We 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. 

Throughout the short story men in Jimmy’s platoon begins to die, and you are able to see the emotions that go through Jimmy’s head. These emotions are common with most soldiers in time of war, they often have survivor’s guilt. This is when soldiers say it should’ve been me when a close friend or comrade is killed. The regret that ensues in Jimmy eats away at him as he goes through their sacks. Jimmy reflects on what they were carrying often describing their class of weaponry and their supplies referring to the weight of their equipment. Jimmy then begins to describe their personality and what they carry whether it be their extra rations, toothbrush or even comic books to help them cope with the fact that they are in war. Jimmy’s coping mechanism 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. 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 uses Martha as a way to cope with the fact that he might die. 

Soldiers are not normal men; they do things civilians could never do. They leave their calm peaceful life to fight for the greater good of the country. The men and women who fight in war are often stricken with life altering mental effects. An example of what its like for soldiers to return home is the movie American sniper. This follows a soldier as he goes through war and what happens when they return home. Soldiers stricken with PTSD and can have episodes. A prime example is the killing of the Chris Kyle who was helping a veteran cope with PTSD when he had an episode and killed him. Chris Kyle had started a program that allows veterans suffering with PTSD to go to a gun range and shoot to try and ease away their stress. However, this can trigger episodes of PTSD and cause tragic things to happen. There are safer ways to deal with PTSD that allows soldiers to get back into the real world. 

In the article “Dissent as Therapy:  The Case of the Veterans of the American War in Vietnam” Riquez talks about how soldiers who write short fictional stories can help veterans cope with their traumatic experience in the Vietnam War “Most of the fiction that was produced by soldier-writers after the American War in Vietnam has been characterized as therapeutic, with its main objective understood to be healing the wounds caused by the traumatic experience of war.”(Riquez, 99). 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, the constant state of survival makes the body tenses up often making it unable for people 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 a country must choose to surrender or fight to preserve its history. 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 effects on our soldiers are also devastating to families. The Vietnam war was not a war we should have started, we lost thousands of soldiers and lost a lot of money. In the short story the things they carry we can see the devastating effects war can have on soldiers. In Jimmy Cross’s case he is stricken with grief and emotions that make him uneasy and unable to focus leading to the death of his own men.  Jimmy’s grief, regret and pain all stem from one emotion his live for Martha. Eventually Jimmy realizes this and buries her letters moving on with his life and stays committed to his brothers in arms.  Although Martha was Jimmy’s coping mechanism not all coping mechanisms are good for the body. In Jimmy’s case his way of coping with the stress of war got others killed. 
