

War is a very popular topic for many countries around the world, though it is a difficult subject for individuals to reflect upon themselves. Aside from the tactics and causes which historians delve extensive time into researching, no one wishes to face the harsh reality of the battles fought by courageous men and women. Soldiers fight arduous battles on and off the battle field, facing inhumane experiences which in turn affect their psyche. Soldiers return from war with only memories of the unbearable occurrences of which they faced. These lasting tragic memories lead to post-traumatic stress disorder in the men and women who fought in battle. This psychological disorder can cause serious social seclusion and physical incapability of these soldiers, preventing them to live normal lives when returning from war. Following the Vietnam War, more studies came out about the effects of PTSD and how prevalent it really is amidst the lives of U.S. veterans. Veterans fought to seek more help for those affected by this disorder after returning from the war, and it quickly became an underlying theme of the talk of battle. Veteran Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a semi-autobiography about the authors experience in the Vietnam War. The recollections of memories O’Brien experienced during the war are likely the traumatizing thoughts that haunt the author each day due to the reality of the war and the emotional disconnect that soldiers follow, causing him post-traumatic stress.

Tim O’Brien uses a disorganized writing style in The Things They Carried to represent the uncontrollable thoughts of a soldier struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. The way the story is written highlights the scattered thoughts of a veteran with PTSD, because the story is written as a series of flashbacks experienced by O’Brien through his struggle with PTSD. Each section of the story is written beginning with a description of the physical objects that the soldiers had to carry. O’Brien talks a little more about what these had to do with the situations they faced, and eventually strays off into Lieutenant Cross’s daydreams of Martha, and the relationship he longed for. Then immediately, the paragraph would end, and resume again with the list of war supplies. For example, “…but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing. He would feel himself rising. Sun and waves and gentle winds, all love and lightness” (O’Brien 332). This is the end of a paragraph that immediately shifts to, “What they carried varied by mission. When a mission took them to the mountains, they carried mosquito netting, machetes, canvas tarps, and extra bug juice” (O’Brien 332). The divide between thoughts shows that Cross’s daydreaming distracts him from his work on the field. All he needs to focus on is what supplies they need to survive the battle and get them through the day. Much like the thoughts in someone’s head, the story is somewhat scattered, moving back and forth between thoughts of what they carried and thoughts of the feelings that he felt towards Martha. Although there has been extensive research on the subject of PTSD, “For reasons that remain unclear, psychiatric problems in many Vietnam veterans became evident years after their return to civilian life” (McNally, 923). After struggling to find the disconnect at war and performing his duties, Cross discovers that his thoughts for Martha have gotten in the way of his work, and immediately becomes angry at himself and shuts her out of his thoughts. Remembering this now at home, the author thinks back on his feelings towards Martha, then quickly jumps back to the disconnect of human emotion that he has become accustomed to, and talks about the things they carried. It is difficult for PTSD patients to control their thoughts because, “The state of ‘being sick’ goes far beyond the physiology of the injury or pathogen afflicting the individual. Illness is a state of being of the whole mind and body” (Xenakis, 8). The author, along with other suffering veterans, could not control the thoughts in his head and had to focus on the war, and they become so accustomed to this, that when they return to home, the thoughts will uncontrollably pop up in their minds, haunting them for the rest of their lives.

Tim O’Brien uses a lack of emotion in his writing to portray the feelings of soldiers at war. The lack of emotion between the soldiers shows the dull lifestyle that they must live in. The inability to connect with others is an unfortunate result of being at war, and carries through the soldier’s lives. Studies on the illness of post-traumatic stress disorder have shown that the “…traumatic psychological events may produce profound and enduring alterations in behavior, interpersonal relationships, brain mechanisms, and functional capacity” (Xenakis, 9). Soldiers learn to create a disconnect among their friends and family when away at war in order to focus on their duties, and during war, they must be able to keep a divide between them and their fellow soldiers. O’Brien highlights this by de-personifying the other soldiers during the experiences faced in the story. He writes, “They marched until dusk, then dug their holes, and that night Kiowa kept explaining 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” (O’Brien 331). The comparison of the dead soldier to cement is used to objectify the dead comrade in order to create a disconnect between the natural human emotions of seeing a friend die. Despite the disconnect, O’Brien is haunted by the sights and scenes that he had to witness at war. But as research shows, it is a normal reaction to shut down after witnessing a traumatic event. “PTSD is a normal reaction to combat (or other) stressful events…In PTSD, the intensity of distress and magnitude of functional incapacity are abnormal and clinically significant” (Xenakis, 9). A way that Tim O’Brien expresses these abnormal feelings of soldiers is by omitting the quotation marks in the dialogue of his writing. He writes about the death of Ted Lavender by claiming, “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” (O’Brien 334). The lack of punctuation creates a non-human portrayal of the interactions the soldiers face toward each other. Viewing their comrades in a non-human way allows the soldiers to focus on their duties at war and prevents them from developing an emotional attachment to their opponents they must kill.

The Things They Carried demonstrates the idea that soldiers on the battlefield value different possessions than regular civilians at home. Soldiers must focus on necessities that will get them through the day and help them win the battles to get them through the war. O’Brien demonstrates this by writing, “In addition to the three standard weapons – the M-60, M-16, and M-79 – they carried whatever presented itself, or whatever seemed appropriate as a means of killing or staying alive” (O’Brien 331). When at war, a soldier’s only worry is to kill and stay alive, so they can only value objects that will get them through each battle. Any unnecessary possessions could prevent them from performing their duties on the field. They live in a world where their focus is to either kill or be killed, so they can only value objects that will get them through from day to day. Their world is objectified in order to determine the items that are essential to their survival, so O’Brien begins a lot of the paragraphs in his story with discussion of the artillery and objects that the soldiers physically carried. Civilian life at home is different, and cares about the relationships shared with others, and the soldiers are forced to prevent themselves from doing just that. Though the main character of the story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, perhaps a character representing the author himself, could not help but value his thoughts of Martha, his lover at home. All he could think about was having a relationship with Martha when he was to return from war, which prevented him from focusing on his work on the battlefield. O’Brien writes, “After five minutes, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross moved to the tunnel, leaned down, and examined the darkness…And then suddenly, without willing it, he was thinking about Martha” (O’Brien 333). His thoughts and emotions were getting in the way of his duties when he needed to be focusing on his comrade who was investigating a tunnel. Then, O’Brien writes that “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had 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). Not only would Lieutenant Cross have to carry this with him through the war, but he would be stuck with this guilt for the rest of his life. The haunting memories that the soldiers experience not only affect their performance at war, but prevent them from living normal lives again, by interfering with their relationships and normalcy. The soldiers who develop post-traumatic stress disorder shut down emotionally and prevent themselves from creating any relationship with another person. This is proven in research, because “Across the country, high rates of suicide, unemployment, and homelessness among veterans attest to the economic hardships they are encountering. Just focusing on causation, diagnosis, or the medical science is shortsighted. Getting veterans to work and improving the quality of their lives should be the priority goals” (Xenakis, 9). This carries over when O’Brien and other veterans return from war because they become so accustomed to creating a disconnect between their relationships with others, and continue imagining their experiences of war, so they cannot mend the connection between themselves and others when back at home.

The Things They Carried is a recollection of the experiences author Tim O’Brien faced, during the Vietnam War. The stories of the memories he experienced during the war show the traumatizing thoughts that haunt the author, and other PTSD sufferers each day. Never does the author directly mention PTSD, since he writes the book in the time period of the war, but he uses specific writing techniques to highlight the struggles that he and other veterans face. The research done on the psychological disorder prove that the illness effects many more people than expected, and the veterans of the Vietnam War are to thank for their efforts in demanding assistance for the veterans in need. Tim O’Brien’s story of his experience at war is one of many works of literature and entertainment that allow people to see the battles that the soldiers fight away at war, and at home.
