The Vietnam War had major repercussions due to the actions of soldiers and events that took place. The two major consequences of the war were how the soldiers were affected and how the image of the United States changed. The soldiers of the war suffered from mental illnesses such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety due to tragic experiences. These experiences that haunt soldiers include death of others and actions taken that are now regretted. The mental illness acquired by the soldiers cause them to suffer socially. Veterans of the war had trouble finding jobs due to how mental illnesses affected them. The regrettable actions of soldiers were what caused the perception of the United States to be changed for other countries. Soldiers of the war were accused of committing certain action which were referred to as “misdeeds” during the war. These misdeeds were described as soldiers killing innocent women and children. Whether these actions were intentional or not they still caused the United States’ image to change. Two stories that support the awareness of the Vietnam War are the short story “The Things They Carried” and the movie “Forrest Gump”. Both of these pieces take place around the period of the Vietnam War and revolve around how the war influences people. Through observations of the similarities and differences of “The Things They Carried” and “Forrest Gump”, the audience can see that the Vietnam War had significant effects on the soldiers involved in it.

“The Things They Carried” uses a group of soldiers to represent what the Vietnam War was like. This story revolves around the items, thoughts, and experiences that these soldiers carry with them into and throughout the Vietnam War. The story focuses on the significance of the things that the soldiers carry because everything has a specific effect. For example, going into war with certain thoughts can haunt you and make the overall war experience even worse. Everyone has a different experience and is effected differently in war because everyone carries different things. The main character of the story is Lieutenant Jimmy Crooks. Jimmy is considered the main character of the story because he was effected differently from the war than others.  Jimmy went into the Vietnam War with an emotional influence. An emotional thought is not good to carry with you when going into war. Emotional thoughts along with war experiences can increase the likelihood of a soldier to be traumatized mentally. Jimmy went into the war with a crush on a girl named Martha. He also brought photos of her into the war and wrote letters for her. Jimmy had these items to remind himself of Martha. He also had to deal with the death of a fellow soldier and decided to carry the fallen soldier’s items. Carrying a comrade’s belongings also has a significant effect on a soldier’s mind because it constantly reminds them of what they experienced. The constant thoughts of Martha that Jimmy had along with the facing death of a comrade caused Jimmy to be mentally disturbed. Later in the story Jimmy notices that his constant fantasies of Martha were not helping him. After he realized this he decided to burn his memorabilia of her. Jimmy made himself believe that their relationship was going nowhere anyways and they are in two different worlds so it was not worth thinking about her. The issue that is expressed in this story is that soldiers of the Vietnam War suffered mentally due to war experiences. The goal that this story achieves is that it raises the awareness of this issue so people can appreciate what Vietnam War veterans had to go through.

The movie “Forrest Gump” is about the life of Forrest Gump. Forrest grew up and lived in the twentieth century and experienced many of the major events in it.  In the movie, Forrest was directly involved in these events and had a major influence in society. For most of these events Forrest is the focal point and he is seen a joke and a hero at the same time. Forrest is claimed to be a joke because of his lack of intelligence, but this does not hinder him from doing great things. In the movie, Forrest enlisted in the United States Army after he graduated college. Since he was enlisted in the Army in this period he was sent to fight in Vietnam. Forrest went into the Vietnam War with no friends except for his crush on a girl named Jenny that he grew up with. When he got the bus to start his journey in the Army he met his future friend named Bubba. Him and Bubba ended up being good friends and did everything together in the Army. When he made it to Vietnam the first thing Forrest did was patrol around for months with his platoon. While he was in Vietnam he constantly wrote letters to Jenny and was not bothered mentally at all. One day while patrolling around Vietnam, Forrest and his platoon were ambushed by Vietnamese soldiers. This was one of the most tragic part of the film for Forrest because he did not know what to do. Since Forrest did not know what to do he decided to run and leave his friend Bubba. When he got far enough from the fighting he realized that he left Bubba so he went looking for him. After Forrest found and saved several other men in his platoon he finally found Bubba severely hurt who later passed away. This affected Forrest significantly because Bubba was one of his best friends and they were planning on being friends for life after war. After the war, Forrest was awarded the Medal of Honor from the President for his acts of bravery and was labeled a hero. Later in the film Forrest has a major influence on people because of how people praised him. People wanted him to express his stance on the war and to help protest peace because he had such an influence on society. The message portrayed in the film is that the Vietnam War is a significant event that had a major impact over the soldiers in it and the society as a whole.

There are many similarities between “The Things They Carried” and “Forrest Gump”. The major thing that they have in common is that the messages they portray can be interpreted the same when looking that the Vietnam War. Both stories use similar methods to portray their messages about the Vietnam War. They both use a main character and their experiences to show the physical and psychological effects that soldiers obtained from the war. Jimmy and Forrest both went into the war with a crush on a girl and constantly thought of them. This is significant because emotions can change a person especially when experiencing something tragic like war. Also, since they were both soldiers they experienced the death of comrades and friends. Jimmy demonstrated more symptoms than Forrest of struggling mentally. This could be due to Forrest lack of intelligence but he also did get emotional when his best friend died. The film is more comical than the short story because of the difference in the main characters. This difference in genre causes there to be less focus on the mental effects in the film than the short story. The theme that can be inferred from these two pieces is still similar though. Both pieces purpose can be seen to spread the awareness of the Vietnam War. 

Through comparisons of the short story “The Things They Carried” and the movie “Forrest Gump”, the audience can see a similar message in both pieces. The short story and the film both raise the awareness for the Vietnam War. It is important that these two pieces do this because post traumatic mental illness due to war is a serious issue. A lot of people do not believe that this is an illness that should be taken seriously but it should. The funding for veterans is not high enough and it is continuously being cut. The goal that must be made from these pieces is that everyone should gain a better appreciation of veterans of all wars. 