Glenn R Schiraldi’s book, The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook, and James E. Westheider’s book The Vietnam War, provide information about PTSD and how it works, that would help the readers of Tim O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried better understand PTSD in the novel. The historical and cultural context that both sources provide would give anyone reading, The Things They Carried, the necessary information for them to properly understand how the idea of how PTSD runs throughout the story. 

Without a more enriched knowledge of PTSD in the Vietnam War, one who reads O’Brien’s novel will not have as good of an understanding as one who actually read up on what was going on at the time. Although many won’t ever experience the effects of PTSD because we didn’t go to war, reading up on what it does to a soldier could make it easier for the reader to put themselves in the shoes of the soldier. Back in the Vietnam War era, most people believed that PTSD was something that happened when you came home from war and it would go away in the following weeks. However, back then, they did not know that it was a disorder that effected the mind on a level that is very hard to heal. 

In O’Brien’s book, he goes over what the soldiers had to carry and told how heavy it was. If the reader read up on what American soldiers carried during the war, they’d know what each item was before it was introduced and have an idea of why it would be necessary. The historical background in the Vietnam War could be interpreted from James E. Westheider’s book The Vietnam War, and easily used to retain a better understanding of O’Brien’s book. Westheider’s book offers valuable insight for anyone reading O’Brien’s novel. 

The whole perception of PTSD during the Vietnam War was totally different from what we see it as today. It wasn’t until after the war that we began to define PTSD as a psychological issue. PTSD was formally defined after the Vietnam War and the American Psychiatric Association began looking deeper into the long term effects of the disorder. By reading Schiraldi’s book on PTSD, readers would know that there are three types of PTSD: Intentional Human, Unintentional Human, and Acts of Nature. The most common of the three is Intentional Human PTSD; which includes experiences such as: war, sexual and physical assault, and emotional experiences such as being held hostage. The most common type of PTSD experienced this category of PTSD is the event of war. This causes the most stress on the human mind because of the savagery and barbarianism that occurs in the time the individual is experiencing the event. 

Many of these facts could easily be picked up if one were to read the book on PTSD. This would help the reader of O’Brien’s novel understand the prevalence of PTSD in the Vietnam War. 

O’Brien’s book gives several example of the physical and mental luggage all the soldiers in Vietnam had to carry with them into battle. Many of the men have to carry basic necessities that all add up when you are walking through jungles and over mountains. If people read up on the struggles that soldiers endured back in the Vietnam War, they’d be able to more easily recognize what obstacles those men had to go through. When you read the book, it only tells of the physical luggage the men had to carry, and it doesn’t mention the mental luggage of having to see friends die in the blink of an eye. 

For most people, this is only an image made up in their heads when they read the novel; however, if one were to explore into research like Glenn R Schiraldi’s book, The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook and James E. Westheider’s book The Vietnam War, they’d have a better idea of what it felt like. 

Both of the novels offer numerous examples of PTSD in the Vietnam War and would serve as excellent provision into the prevalence of PTSD as seen in Tim O’Brien’s story, The Things They Carried. They would serve as excellent guides into the experiences of the men in Vietnam.

The analysis of how PTSD is formed and how it impacts all types of life, in today’s society and the past, would support any claims on how PTSD was very prevalent in the Vietnam War. There is so much information that could be used in both sources for any argument made in O’Brien’s novel. It would be very beneficial to know the historical background of the Vietnam War before making any arguments about the novel. It would help the reader get a feeling of the kind of mental thoughts that the men in Vietnam went through. It would also help to know the impact of PTSD on soldiers. Being able to know the effects it had on all the men who served will prove to be vital if talking about the impact it had on the mind of the men in the story. 

The value of the information that the readers could retain from the two sources would make reading, The Things They Carried, way more impacting. Without a clear understanding of the book and the time zone, it would be easy for readers to misinterpret many aspects of the book. They wouldn’t have an idea of why the soldiers are doing what they are going through, and the reader wouldn’t know what the level of stress is that those men went though. 

To conclude, reading from the two sources, Glenn R Schiraldi’s book, The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook and James E. Westheider’s book The Vietnam War, would have unparalleled benefits for someone reading Tim O’Brien’s story, The Things They Carried. Without a clear cut idea of what’s going on in the time period of the Vietnam War, it would be easy for an individual to misinterpret parts of the novel.  
