
By 1975, over 1,353,000 people from Vietnam, the United States, and other Allied countries had been killed, victims of the malicious Vietnam war. These numbers include not only soldiers but civilians as well that were caught in the cross fire and met their unfortunate demise. Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam war veteran and an author. He wrote his novels based on some of his traumatic experiences during war. One of his greatest pieces is called The Things They Carried which tells the story of a young lieutenant named Jimmy Cross and his men fighting in the Vietnam war. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is absorbed in his love for a girl back home named Martha. This distraction takes away from his leadership ability and puts his men in harm’s way. His failure as a leader is evident when one of his men, Ted Lavender, is shot and killed. Cross blames himself for fantasizing about Martha and not paying close attention to their surroundings. Cross carries that burden with him throughout the text which later causes him to change his priorities as a leader. The Vietnam war was a violent war that caused PTSD in many soldiers. The harsh effects of war left emotional burdens for soldiers to carry especially for Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his men. Through repetition, tone, and conflict, O’Brien shows his own insight into the mind of a war veteran.

The Vietnam War was one of the largest massacres of soldiers in history of the United States. By most accounts, Vietnam was the site of one of the most brutal and destructive of the wars between Western imperial powers and the people of Asia, Africa, and Latin America (Le Espiritu, 2008). Many people died pointless deaths in Vietnam because American soldiers didn’t know or understand what they were even fighting for. The communication between leaders and the soldiers was horrible which lead to many unnecessary deaths. Public opinion polls over the years consistently have shown that two out of three Americans believe the war was a "mistake," but few claim to know what we should have done differently (Starr, 1995). While the war might have been a mistake, it happened and it changed our soldier’s lives and left them with feelings of regret and sorrow for the rest of their lives.

After experiencing a traumatizing event, a person can experience symptoms of PTSD which is a common occurrence for war veterans. Post-traumatic stress disorder can come from exposure to a traumatic event in which the person has responded with intense fear, helplessness, or horror. A victim of PTSD may re-experience the traumatic event in recurrent, intrusive, and distressing images, thoughts, or perceptions. Other common factors may include, persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, accompanied by a numbing of general responsiveness which wasn't present before the trauma. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal, such as hypervigilance or exaggerated startle response, which weren't present before the trauma” (Clark, 1997). PTSD is a very common diagnosis after experiencing some type of trauma. It causes the person to constantly think of the terrible incident and to remember every detail. Things that remind the person of the incident can cause the victim to lose control and possibly have a panic attack. “Participation in armed conflicts results in a multitude of adverse health outcomes, including emotional and psychological conditions from real and perceived exposures” (Smith, 2009). Many soldiers experience PTSD and Tim O’Brien is potentially one of those people. 

Tim O’Brien has experienced a lot while being fighting overseas and he writes about his experiences is his novels. Some of the subjects he writes about show the burden and traumatizing events that occurred and have left an impact on his life. “Ted Lavender was shot in the head on the way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open. The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his eye (334). O’Brien has a bland tone when describing the death of Lavender and has trouble conveying a sense of sympathy. O’Brien is numb to emotions from the war so he has trouble providing the reader with sentimental text. This is a probable side effect of PTSD. In addition to a bland tone, O’Brien uses repetition to explain what soldiers carried in war. “Lieutenant and platoon leader Jimmy Cross carried a compass, code books, binoculars, and a .45 caliber pistol that weighed 2.9 pounds fully loaded. He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men. As RTO, Mitchell Sanders carried the PRC-25 radio, a killer, 26 pounds…Henry Dubbins carried the M-60, which weighed 23 pounds unloaded” (330). He is constantly repeating the items the soldiers had to carry in war to the exact detail and how much of a burden it was. O’Brien must have struggled with some psychological damage from the Vietnam war and remembers everything that happened to him while he was fighting. This text must be a recount of what exactly happened to him or people he knew overseas. “When I returned from Vietnam, I had something to say: I had witnessed things, smelled things, imagined things which struck me as startling and terrifying and intriguing in all sorts of ways” (McCaffery, 1982). The war changed O’Brien and he felt like the only way for him to reemerge into society was to write down all his experiences. All these images and details of war were spinning in his head and the only to overcome this was to let it all out. But letting all that pain and that suffering out sometimes can do harm before it does any good. “The good judgment of war disappeared and surrealism took over. The mind of the soldier becomes part of the experience-the brain seems to flow out of your head, joining the elements around you on the battlefield. It's like stepping outside yourself. War is a surreal experience, therefore it seems quite natural and proper for a writer to render some of its aspects in a surreal way” (McCaffery, 1982). After returning home from war, O’Brien had trouble distinguishing what had truly happened while overseas. Our minds can trick us after experiencing great distress and it is unknown if all the things O’Brien writes about truly happened or if he made them up thinking they were true. Tim O’Brien had experienced traumatizing events while being at war which could have caused him to have symptoms of PTSD once he returned home.

Not being focused on a task can hurt you in the end, and Lieutenant Jimmy Cross learns this the hard way when his dying love for Martha diverts his attention from the war and his men. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross fights the inexpressible fear the men share by obsessing about a girl he wants to love and substituting the unoriginality of her letters for the reality of Vietnam. After Lavender's death, Cross digs a foxhole and gives in to uncontrolled weeping. Finally, despite the rain, he burns the letters. Accepting the "blame" for his soldiers’ death, he resolves to be a leader, not a lover, determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence (Wesley, 2002). Cross is carrying too much burden on his shoulders. He feels like if he hadn’t been so wrapped up thinking about Martha then Lavender would still be alive. All this burden and guilt will haunt him for the rest of his life. He will probably experience psychological problems like PTSD later in his life. “Henceforth, when he thought about Martha, it would be only to think that she belonged elsewhere. He would shut down the daydreams. This was not Mount Sebastian, it was another world, where there were no pretty poems or midterm exams, a place where men died because of carelessness and gross stupidity…he would except blame for what happened to Ted Lavender. He would be man about it” (340-341). Cross forces himself to let go of his feelings for Martha so he can be more focused on his tasks as being the leader. Cross changes his priorities to make sure that not another one of his men would die based off his carelessness. Cross will never forget what happened during the war and unfortunately he will probably remember every detail. Cross will want nothing more then to forget but it will stay with him the rest of his life. Doing your job is very important and when you don’t it properly there can be some regrettable consequences.  

The Vietnam war was a violent war that took the lives of many innocent people. In addition, it left soldiers with lingering psychological damage like PTSD after returning home to their families. PTSD is an emotional burden for soldiers to carry especially for Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and Tim O’Brien. Both men have to live with their actions and try to move on from it. Jimmy Cross moved on by changing his priorities but that might not resolve all the damage that was done to his mind and conscience. O’Brien chose to write all his experiences down in the form of a novel. This is a coping mechanism for O’Brien in order to live with himself and enjoy the rest of his life. Be more intuitive with your actions and know what you are fighting for in your life so you will have no regrets. While the Vietnam war is in the past, the countless stories passed on from generation to generation will never be forgotten. Knowing about the war and the damage it caused on countless peoples’ lives can help prevent future occurrences from happening.
