“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a literary work set during the Vietnam War in which the author places himself as the protagonist in stories loosely based on his real life experiences throughout the war. This text entails Tim O’Brien’s fictional company which is comprised of characters that had different mindsets and had burdens they each had to carry with them both physically and emotionally. Each soldier in the company carried different items depending on what they needed to make the journey through hell. Some required comfort, protection, comfort through protection, basically anything that made the soldiers’ situations better for them in order to cope with war. They also had to carry burdens such as responsibility, loss, fear, emotions that could weigh on a soldier more than their equipment and could not be taken off even after returning home. Vietnam was an unkind war and traumatized many men. Many soldiers came home and had difficulties with living an everyday life and suffered from PTSD. These men would have trouble having ordinary jobs and would end up homeless, depressed, and mistreated. Vietnam was a bad idea and could’ve been prevented if it were not for President Richard Nixon’s decisions at the time. This would have saved countless lives of many soldiers that died in Vietnam, and it could have saved the ones that survived Vietnam. 

America went into Vietnam in order to prevent a communist government from taking over. This began with bombings of the communist’s strongholds and sending in troops by Lyndon B. Johnson. Nixon got elected on his promise to end the already very much hated war by the American people. This promise would not be followed through, “Nixon, as he said, had no intention of becoming "the first president of the United States to lose a war." To him, that meant that he had to sustain the anticommunist government in Saigon at least through his own term in office. On the other hand, the Vietnamese communists, north and south, who had fought a nationalist and a revolutionary struggle against the Japanese, the French, and the Americans since the Second World War, would not abandon their cause.” (Fitzgerald p. 57). It raged on for an arduous 7 years with the steady pull of troops back home while expanding the war into areas such as Cambodia. This unwanted war drafted many young men into the army and were sent off to fight for an unknown cause. Many tried to avoid the draft and would even go to lengths of injuring themselves before heading to a country that was rumored to be a living hell. O’Brien himself even had plans to escape to Canada to avoid the draft, but at the last second managed to summon up the courage to stay and get drafted. Vietnam was a nightmare and no one wanted to be sent there. The war ended only when the country was over taken by the enemy, “America slowly pulled out of Vietnam after several peace treaty attempts and were finally forced out when the communists and rebels took the capital of Vietnam and the last American chopper took off from the US embassy” (Fitzgerald p. 57). 

It was popular for soldiers to take something that was easy to carry with them to remind them of home, loved ones, or just to remind them that there’s more out there than this war they were in the middle of. Soldiers would carry things in general to feel more protected and secure to ease their minds. An unfocused paranoid soldier isn’t a good soldier. In The Things They Carried O’Brien bases each character on a certain types of soldiers he saw while in Vietnam. His character Tim O’Brien is a basic narrator and loosely based on himself. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is the leader of his company and must struggle with the responsibility of keeping his men safe while also struggling with his personal life and emotions. Other characters like Ted Lavender represent the scared soldiers that relied on drugs to be able to function in the jungles of Vietnam. You also had religious soldiers, soldiers that acted tough and mean, and soldiers that reflected the personalities of many men that were actually there in Vietnam. Each character had their own inner conflicts and learned to try and carry these while trying to fight a war. They carried objects that made them feel safe and things that would help comfort a man in hell. Objects ranged from bibles to condoms, extra guns and a radio, letters from home and photographs. Many carried dope to calm themselves and deal with the reality of war in their own way. Whatever they carried they each had something to keep them moving. Physical objects can provide comfort and that’s what really matters when you know you could be killed any second. That constant fear of dying could really mess with a man’s head and drive them insane. Along with not knowing what they are fighting for and why caused a lot of soldiers to just not care and got stuck with the same routine every day, which was patrolling around the country just looking for rebels to shoot. You can’t win wars if no one thinks it can be won and you cannot have a healthy minded group of soldiers with this same thought process. So in a way Vietnam was hell, and objects made it a little easier for the soldiers to cope with it. Emotional burdens can make or break men. Cross carries around the death of his men and blames himself for not doing a better job at protecting them. He blames it on his love letters from a girl he went on a couple dates with back home. He carries them with him to ease his mind, he believes that his imaginary relationship and daydreaming caused him to get distracted and not have his guard up. While his guard is down Ted Lavender gets shot in the head after returning from a bathroom break. As a result, he burns the letters that he carried releasing the weight of uncertainty about whether a girl loved him or not. But it is replaced with the heavier burden of guilt and grief. While this new burden he carried ate him up, it also allowed him to stay focused and do a better job of protecting his men. And each soldier has a different reaction to Lavender’s death. Some cope by making jokes,, others cope by not talking about it at all. Some cope by using Lavender’s own stash of dope. Lavender’s death his carried by all of the men even after the war. They carried their experiences and stories after the war and found it hard to confide in individuals that would even understand. Norman Bowker carries his psychological burdens alone and eventually ends up hanging himself. And O’Brien copes by sharing his stories that he carries with his readers.

After the war many soldiers came home to a very different environment than what they were used to for a long period of time. Their mental state had been completely rearranged. First the unwillingness to enter war was not healthy for soldiers who did not want to fight at all. You win wars with people who are willing to fight and serve to accomplish what needs to get done. For the Vietnam War America did not have that edge. Second there were many different hazards there and not having an exact objective made it even more difficult. You cannot simply capture and defeat a rebellion. A rebellion is more like a movement and an idea for change and too many people believed in their cause in Vietnam while American soldiers were just wanting to go back home. You had severe weather in a jungle like environment making it hard to trek through. And the southern rebels were unidentifiable making almost anyone they encountered into an enemy. They couldn’t interrogate civilians and since the rebels were mostly civilians it gave soldiers a disadvantage and created paranoia for most soldiers. All of this together combined with exposure to combat and death of fellow men really effected survivors of Vietnam and led to what they called at the time Post Vietnam Syndrome. “This syndrome usually consists of combat related nightmares, anxiety, anger, depression, alcohol and/or drug dependence, and poor responsiveness. The term post-traumatic stress disorder was not used in the DSM until the DSM-III was published in 1980 under anxiety disorders. Prior to that this condition was viewed as stress response syndrome, which was a type of gross stress reaction.” (Beggs). And once they did come home where they were supposed to be accepted as American war heroes, they were rejected by society and were labeled as murderers. Before Vietnam veterans were encouraged to tell their stories and were looked up to by the American people, but the war was hated so much society also took it out on the soldiers who fought it. Because of this prejudice vets kept their stories to themselves and never got the opportunity talk about it with other people which often times led to a breaking point and onset of PTSD. “These onsets can be triggered by something reminding the individual of the stresses of combat like loud noises. Other ways to trigger traumatic feelings from war are with other feelings of stress. If a Vietnam veteran had some trouble adapting to civilian life and many years later he experienced life changing events, usually for the worse, it might trigger some PTSD symptoms.” (Beggs). Vietnam veterans have been through hell both in Vietnam and in the United States and deserved better than the hand they got dealt. 

The Things They Carried helped people understand what a soldier went through in Vietnam and how they had to cope with being forced to go because of the draft, which caused stress and anxiety. It showed the burdens they carried whether it was physically or emotionally during and after the war. Both history and this text show that veterans need to share their stories and talk to people about their experiences so that their burdens they carry can be lifted and shared.  
