 
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien exposes the reality of PTSD that soldiers faced during and after the Vietnam war.  The mental effect war has on soldiers follows them back home, leaving them struggling to manage everyday life.  During the Vietnam war, American soldiers were forced to see the horror of death daily, as O’Brien depicts in his story.  The Things They Carried helps provide a better picture of what the soldiers encountered, and evoke emotions within the readers so they can more fully understand the severity of PTSD among soldiers. O’Brien hopes to display the significance of PTSD and how in modern day, it is often forgotten.

Following the Vietnam war, the soldiers were mistreated upon returning home because many Americans felt it was not America’s place to intervene with the Asian conflict. The anti-war movement did not accept the soldiers upon return, forcing them into seclusion.  This resulted in difficulty for American soldiers to find support groups, and help to cope with the horrors they experienced.  Having such a quick transition from the battle grounds back into the states, the soldiers never had time to truly desensitize.  As described by Bower in his writing, he says the soldiers with PTSD described themselves having “split personalities” and having to “keep the tiger in its cage.” (Bower 197).  The soldiers struggled with taming the fighter they had to bring out in the war zone, but had to fight to keep the fighter inside of themselves once entering society back in America.  Bower, in his writings, quotes psychiatrist Bruce I. Goderez who states the tiger that the soldiers describe is “their combat self…hyperalert, belligerent, destructive and well adapted to survival in the war zone.” (Bower 197).  During the war, the soldiers unleashed the destructive fighter that O’Brien describes leading to a new personality.  The new personality is a fighter that does not belong in Americas civilized societies of peace and tranquility.  The Vietnam era gave rise to numerous battle fatigue cases because of the lack of support on the battle field and back in America.

The Things They Carried includes various characters that have PTSD and describes how they were crippled by it in different ways.  O’Brien tells tales that the real-life characters encountered and how it affected them.  The characters that will be analyzed all had different side effects of PTSD, but were all hindered.  Malcolm M. Barr describes the symptoms of PTSD, “symptoms include irritability, aggression, memory problems, trouble concentrating, and depression, often with agitation.” (Barr 397).  Lt. Cross, Kiowa, and Mitchell Sanders illuminated these signs and characteristics in the novel.  Being exposed to the environment, the soldiers personified the characteristics of a solder with PTSD.  From Lt. Cross’s concentration problems, to Mitchell Sanders needless aggression; both Lt. Cross’s and Kiowa’s PTSD can be linked to the tragic death of Ted Lavender, who was shot in the head.  The impact lead both soldiers into a deep shell shock, which hindered the soldiers.

The first character that O’Brien introduces is First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who over the course shows strong signs of PTSD.  Lt. Cross shows signs of strong obsession with his believed to be girlfriend, Martha from back home.  Martha wrote the Lieutenant letters during his time in Vietnam and Lt. Cross spent his spare time fascinating over them. The letters and pictures seemed to be the only positive thing that the Lieutenant had, so naturally they turned into an obsession.  Cross found himself day dreaming about Martha during their missions as O’Brien describes “And then suddenly, without willing it, he was thinking about Martha” (333).  When Ted Lavender was shot, Lt. Cross was day dreaming, not focused on what the current situation at hand.  The death of Lavender gave Lt. Cross shell shock and sent him to the breaking point, where he believed that it was his fault that Lavender was shot.  O’Brien goes on to describe how Lt. Cross started showing signs of aggression with his men going on a rampage “They burned everything. They shot chickens and dogs, they trashed the village well, they called in artillery and watched the wreckage” (336).  That night, Lt. Cross began showing more signs of PTSD which included depression and agitation “Kiowa explained how Lavender died, Lieutenant Cross found himself trembling.  He tried not to cry. With his entrenching tool, which weighed 5 pounds, he began digging a hole in the earth. He felt shame. He hated himself. He loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war.” (O’Brien 336).  Since the death of Lavender Lt. Cross showed prominent signs of PTSD which he had to learn to cope with during his time in Vietnam.

In The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien introduces the soldiers Kiowa who like Lt. Cross shows begins to show signs of PTSD after witnessing the death of Lavender.  Kiowa like Lt. Cross was affected by PTSD when he witnessed the death of Lavender as O’Brien describes “Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open. The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye. The cheekbone was gone. Oh shit, Rat Kiley said, the guy’s dead. The guy’s dead, he kept saying, which seemed profound-the guy’s dead. I mean really” (334). Kiowa went into shell shock after the tragic scene of death and was in disbelief of the situation as O’Brien describes “Kiowa kept explain how you had to be there, how fast it was, how the poor guy just dropped like so much concrete. Boom-down, he said. Like cement.” (331).  O’Brien goes on describing how Kiowa was haunted and depressed of the death “He tried not to think about Ted Lavender, but then he was thinking how fast it was, no drama, down and dead, and how it was hard to feel anything except surprise.” (337).  Kiowa shows signs of desensitization and shell shock as he struggles to mustard up any more emotions other than shock and depression of the fact.  O’Brien goes on to describe Kiowa’s thoughts about struggling to find emotions “He wished he could find some great sadness, or even anger, but the emotion wasn’t there and he couldn’t make it happen.” (337).  The thought of Lavenders death kept Kiowa from even sleeping envisioning the scene is his head while trying to sleep “when he closed his eyes, all he could think was Boom-down,” (O’Brien 337).  Kiowa’s own personal experience of witnessing a death lead him to have severe PTSD symptoms and mental health issues.

The last case of PTSD in O’Brien’s novel is Mitchell Sanders an insensible soldier that has had his mind taken over the by “tiger” that Goderez warns about.  Mitchell Sanders is average man that has been engrossed in the war zone of Vietnam.  O’Brien writing about Sanders actions shows the aggression that Barr describes in PTSD and the destructiveness that Goderez suggests is a sign of PTSD.  Mitchell shows his aggression and destructiveness when he presents a thumb of a human as a gift to a fellow soldier.  The story that O’Brien writes about shows how PTSD can change a man into something else “He put his hand on the dead boy’s wrist. He was quiet for a time, as if counting a pulse, then he patted the stomach, almost affectionately, and used Kiowa’s hunting hatchet to remove the thumb.” (334).  Mitchell goes on to state his opinion that it was “there’s a definite moral here.” (O’Brien 334).  This shows that Mitchell has lost all sensibility and then O’Brien finishes with describing his final actions: “smiling, he kicked the boy’s head, watched the flies scatter, and said, It’s like with that old TV show-Paladin. Have gun, will travel.” (334).  Mitchell shows he has lost all sense of humanity and shows that he has serious PTSD that would not be accepted in today’s military standard.  O’Brien writes about Mitchell to show the readers the harshness that the soldiers encountered and what they dealt with daily.  Mitchell Sanders let his “tiger,” that Goderez describes, in PTSD patients grow too strong and left all of his sensibility behind.  Therefore, leading him to a dark reality that many soldiers faced during war.

In conclusion, O’Brien was influenced to provide readers an insight on how PTSD effected soldiers in the Vietnam war.  With three key soldiers, he writes about how one can see the different signs of PTSD that psychologist like Barr and Goderez depict. These depictions of PTSD allow readers to understand the mental breakdown that the Vietnam war had on soldiers. O’Brien captures how the harsh environment of Vietnam led to many soldiers’ confusion as they returned home. He observes the different types of PTSD and how that can change the mind and attitude of a soldier. He delivers examples on different outcomes soldiers receive upon returning home from war. Whether a soldier had no emotion or too much emotions to control, soldiers, according to O’Brien need support. The Things They Carried proves that a soldier might leave a battlefield with a different mental attitude and lifestyle.
 