
Tim O’Brien used recollection of real traumatic events he encountered to create a fictional story based on the real happenings in the Vietnam War.  This story takes place in Vietnam in the 1960’s throughout one of the most controversial wars America has ever been a part of (O'Brien). This story follows a group of soldiers on their journeys through the war, and their lives after it ends.  The main idea of this story has to do with the physical and mental burdens these men were forced to drag around with them every day (O'Brien).  The story of things they carried around created a mirage that masked the horrific events in the story that was told.  All the soldiers and their sentimental items were discussed and the author gives a feel of how mentality can change during war.  The characters’ mentality and morals in the story “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien were greatly affected by feelings towards war in America, Media Perception, readily available drugs, and PTSD effects.  This overall perception of war at the time was reflected by the soldiers in this novel in the way they carried themselves through the war.   

Tim O’Brien and the soldiers he wrote about being with him in, “The Things They Carried”, were greatly influenced by the feelings of war in America.  O’Brien himself didn’t want to fight in the war when he was first drafted and talked about hating it in the section “On the Rainy River”.  In his recollection of his time “On the Rainy River” O’Brien Says he saw “no unity of purpose, no consensus on matters of philosophy, or history or law”, and he said “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons”.  These feelings mirrored many of those in America, most people found the war inhumane and illegal and did not see the reason we were at war in the first place (Moyar). The draft was also highly controversial because it seemed to be prejudice to certain classes of people.  Many men being drafted were from poor or minority families and had little way to get out of going to war opposed to more educated men (Kington). This influenced moral because soldiers at war were mostly put into a low-class category. In Tim O’Brien’s book, you can see how most of the soldiers had no real drive to fight in the war they were drafted into.  This can be seen with the Lieutenants flashbacks to his time with Martha, his heart isn’t with the war.  Most of the time their heads were elsewhere and all they could do was think about going home and finally eating real food (O'Brien). His story reflects the period with his own conflict about being drafted into the war and the soldiers not being inspired to be there in the first place.  This overall conflicted feeling on being overseas had a negative impact on the mentality of the soldiers because 

Another big influence at the time O’Brien wrote his story was the media.  Most American families for the first time had a TV in their household and access to information from all over the world through the news. This was the first ever war to ever be fully documented on media news outlets and for the first time all Americans had the opportunity to see the real horrors of war first hand (Moyar). This created a movement across the country, especially on college campuses, and protests started popping up everywhere to go against the war (Kington).  The Lieutenant was most likely influenced by these protests as well because of his strong ties to his love Martha who was a college student.  Most of the media was covered by educated anti-war individuals so pro-war veterans rarely had their voices heard by the public (Moyar).  You can see by Tim O’Brien’s attitude about being drafted into the war that the media influenced his views.  He was a college educated man who was supposed to go to Harvard for graduate school and he did not want to be drafted for what he thought to be a useless war (O'Brien). With all the protests and media coverage going on in America Veterans were no longer looked at as hero’s and more looked at as criminals so the soldiers knew there wasn’t a happy welcoming awaiting them (Moyar). Soldiers like the ones in “The Things They Carried” didn’t have a high moral or any motivation to fight because they had nothing to look forward to.  Most of them focused solely on their DEROS (Date of expected return from overseas) so winning the war wasn’t the focus they just wanted to live to go home (Kington).  It seemed in the story, “The Things They Carried” that many soldiers were more invested in the past then the war they were fighting in.  

Another huge issue with the moral and motivation in war was the drugs that were readily available to soldiers.  To get over the horrors of war and all the killing they were forced to do soldiers would turn to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain away.  The Vietnam war was the first that there was a huge drug problem because most of them needed something to mellow them out and allow them to fight for a war they did not necessarily believe in. (Lawyer) We see this in the book “The Things they carried with Ted Lavender who always had his 6 to 7 ounces of premium dope on him along with tranquilizers that he took.  Lavender was often discussed as being frightened and scared so he most likely used the drugs to calm down and numb the fear he had away (O'Brien). We see how drugs impacted Lavender because he always seemed distracted while fighting because of his own fear.  Drugs in Vietnam were easy to get and in turn effected the soldiers mentalities and morals with addictions, cravings, and the inability to fight to full capacity (Lawyer).  

The most important influence on the soldiers although, would probably be the effects on their minds because of PTSD.  They may not have known they would suffer from this disorder during the war but it had many post war effects on the men.  PTSD was also a relatively new idea at the time so there wasn’t much treatment offered to soldiers to assist them through it.  Since the soldiers were not looked at as war hero’s when they arrived home, the transition back into the real world was especially hard for the Vietnam veterans. (Lawyer) They were just thrown back into their old normal lives and often had nobody to talk to about what happened to them overseas in Vietnam. (Lawyer) The soldier’s families could try and sympathize, but they could never understand what the veterans went through, so talking about it with them was difficult.  We see this when O’Brien talks about his writing of war stories and how his daughter thinks it’s an odd obsession and he should instead write about things like a girl who finds money and buys a pony (O'Brien) The transition home for the soldiers was a difficult one and with no outlet they suffered from their PTSD.  O’Brien was lucky to have found an outlet through his writing of war stories but for many others they could not escape the horrors of war.  We see this with Norman Bowker in, “The Things They Carried”.  He could not get past the death of his fellow soldier Kiowa and the pain of what he witnessed so he ultimately hung himself.  This was all too common with the Vietnam war, with no way to deal with their emotions the PTSD took over the lives of the returning veterans.

The novel, “The Things They Carried was largely based off real events that happened throughout Tim O’Brien’s time at war.  He could capture the feelings of the time through his own personal experience along with stories from his fellow soldiers.  His story was influenced by the feelings towards war in America, media perception, readily available drugs, and PTSD effects.  All these factors played a role in the morals of the soldiers whose stories were being told.  Whether it was a drug addiction, the conflict on whether to run from the draft, or trying to get over PTSD, all the soldiers in this story had some type of obstacle to face.  This story was an important piece of literature at the time because it gave people an insight into the everyday struggle of veterans, and it gave veterans a relatable story to reference.  The period during the Vietnam war was a hard one for veterans and Tim O’Brien could embody all the pain and emotions of the time through his novel.
