
BOOM, you hear a loud crash, a fog of smoke rises from the ground in front of you. As you take a step forward, you see your fellow soldier, a long time best friend, lying on the ground, dead. You instantly know you must leave his lifeless body and continue to move forward, as there is no time to waste with mourning or else you too will be dead. This scenario describes a scene that soldiers in the Vietnam War witnessed all too often. On a daily basis these young men were faced with traumatic experiences that couldn’t help but result in mental alteration.  By understanding the psychological effects of war culture on soldiers, you can better understand the historical and cultural contexts that influenced the storyline and diction of “The Things They Carried” by Tim Obrien.

As expected, it is difficult to participate in traumatic events such as the Vietnam War without receiving some form of mental impact such as the character’s in Obrien’s story demonstrate. Whether it may alter your memory or cause you to develop PTSD or coping mechanisms, it always has an effect on you psychologically. In the story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross has a mental infatuation with a girl back home named Martha. He fantasizes about their relationship which in reality is non-existent. This behavior exhibits a mental coping mechanism. He is trying to escape the reality of war culture he is in by pretending he is back home with Martha. She is a mental escape and safe place for him, as he faces traumatic and life-changing experiences every moment he is away in Vietnam. The story states, “Kneeling, watching the hole, he tried to concentrate on Lee Shrunk and the war, all the dangers, but his love was too much for him, he felt paralyzed, he wanted to sleep inside her lungs and breathe her blood and be smothered” (Obrien, 333). This quote is a prime example of the mindset of one of the many different coping mechanisms that many soldiers used during this time to try and avoid being consumed with distress and anxiety. As you can imagine, when you are in a negative situation or facing a hardship that is inescapable, it often helps to think of positive or even imaginary things to ease your mind and distract you from the situation at hand. In addition to fantasizing, persona played a key role in war culture during the Vietnam war and is illustrated in Obrien’s writing.

During this time period, expression of masculinity was crucial to soldiers which altered the behavior of those involved such as the troops in “the Things They Carried”. Unrealistic expectations of manliness were forced upon the young soldiers sent to war, ultimately affecting their mental health. Throughout the story there are many quotes that express the false ideal that soldiers were free from emotion or weakness during this time period. Due to this pressure, the soldiers often they felt guilty or shamed if they got scared or showed emotion. The story says “They would touch their bodies, feeling shame and then quickly hiding it” (Obrien, 337). This quote describes how the men would check after an attack to make sure they were still alive then quickly revert to their fake persona of fearlessness. They were too embarrassed to appear weak or vulnerable to their surrounding troops or family back home.  In efforts to try and appear strong, the soldiers often put on the persona of male bravado. In the text it states “They kicked corpses. They cut off thumbs. They talked grunt lingo” (Obrien, 338).  In this depiction of the harsh war culture, these men joke about the dead or “kick corpses” in order to appear as if they are not affected by the traumatic events they are witnessing. They use explicit language and joke about inhumane practices in order to keep up the act of ultimate masculinity. They felt as if somehow they can pretend to be strong that they will meet the expectations of masculinity set for them and protect themselves from being psychologically affected. 

In fact, studies show that individual vulnerability is one of the key risk factors of developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Hochgesang et al.). In the article it states that 18 main “risk factors” contribute to developing a mental illness such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after being exposed to combat related war experiences. Among these are personal vulnerability which encompasses the majority of the factors. Individual vulnerability pertains to characteristics such as race, age, ethnicity, and more. These factors are shown by the soldiers in the story who are both male and young which lead to their mental vulnerability and result in psychological impact.

A lot of the men fighting in the Vietnam War were drafted and therefore young and easily influenced and mentally effected by the events of war culture. They were inexperienced, vulnerable and were simply fighting to avoid shame back home. Because of their age, lack of worldly experience, and motivation, they were faced with situations they were not prepared for. An example of this is the lieutenant jimmy cross. In the story, he often “messes up” or feels as if he’s failing his men by not leading them strongly due to his mental infatuation. The story states, “His mind wandered. He had difficulty keeping his attention on the war. On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out to the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey Shore, with Martha, carrying nothing” (Obrien, 332). Another example is when Obrien states, “He was beyond that. He was just a kid at war, in love. He was twenty-four years old. He couldn’t help it”. These quotes show the lack of experience and maturity due to the young age of the soldiers.

 With this being said, the young age of the soldiers is one of key components of developing a mental illness. Studies show that the younger the soldiers were; the more prominent the mental health effects were (Hochgesang et al.). PLOS Journal states in its study that “In past several decades, a number of studies have focused on combat-related PTSD and have identified individual and social risk factors, these risk factors include being younger at the time of the trauma…” (Hochgesang et al.). This fact explains why so many of the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam war, suffered from mental illnesses such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  

Such as in the story, alot of the soldiers in the Vietnam War were young because of the draft. Due to their age, they were vulnerable, immature, and often scared and therefore turned to illicit substances for comfort. Drug abuse was common among war culture because they offered peace, security, and a mental escape from the trauma the soldiers in the Vietnam war were faced with. In the text Ted Lavender was said to have carried tranquilizers everywhere he went. They often made jokes about how “tranquil” he was when he died due to his constant drug use (Obrien, 338). After Lavender’s death, the story states, “They were waiting for Lavender’s chopper, smoking the dead man’s dope”. Drug and alcohol usage was prevalent among the younger soldiers to try and cope with the psychologically damaging horrors the men were facing such as the death of a comrade as we see with Lavender in the story. During this time period it was challenging to not succumb to the temptation of a liquid escape. 

A supporting article makes the following statement when discussing the drug and alcohol prevalence among Vietnam war soldiers. “"Drugs and alcohol were cheap, readily available and legal…. Whether to get stoned or drunk was a very minor issue to these men.  Their lives and welfare, during this time, hinged on much more important issues than smoking marijuana or drinking Jack Daniel's or prostitutes, these were trivial pursuits” (Hochgesang et al.). This quote represents the culture that the troops in the story were immersed in. The soldiers turned to drugs as the quote says because it was a trivial matter compared to the life and death decisions they were facing every other moment. The psychological effects of the trauma were overwhelming for some of the soldiers and as a result, drug and alcohol abuse was common in war culture.

In conclusion, it is clear that the historical and cultural contexts of war culture psychologically affected those involved. It is hard to experience traumatic horrors on a daily basis without being mentally harmed in some way shape or form. This mental torment is expressed in “The Things They Carried” quite vividly in numerous ways. Obrien uses rough diction to represent how the soldiers talked and acted to meet cultural male standards. They used coping mechanisms to try to protect themselves from vulnerability which they knew could lead to public shame or worse PTSD and other mental disorders. By keeping these facts in mind and understanding the culture of war during the Vietnam War era, it makes the interpretation of the text much more clear to the reader and much more relatable, as you understand the inspiration and influences behind it all.
