
Vietnam was a great tragedy that left a great impact on the lives of the people home away from the war, but more so a long lasting impact on those involved in it. The Vietnam war began in 1956 and lasted until 1975 in a battle between the communist North Vietnamese and the democratic South Vietnamese supported by the United States. The battle style that took place during this war was a neo-revolutionary guerilla warfare brought out by North Vietnam (Douglas 17). This new style of warfare involved many different well engineered explosives, efficient communication equipment, and many explosive light-weight rockets (Douglas 17). This new type of violent guerilla warfare was effective, and terrifying to the US veterans which would ultimately lead to the US leaving the war, and many of the survivors being left with cases of PTSD. In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” there was a great use of different objects with their own special meanings to help the veterans to cope with the PTSD that they faced not only before, but also after the Vietnam War.

Many Veterans faced the issue of PTSD during and after the Vietnam war. Approximately 260,000 of the veterans who returned home from Vietnam suffered from symptoms of PTSD (Vermetten et. al 184). PTSD isn’t a disorder that starts taking effect after the war is over, it can take place when the war is still being fought, or even happen to people who did not experience first-hand combat. A study showed that in a population of Vietnam Veterans that only 41% had documented proof that they were exposed to combat (Vermetten et. al 184).  In the case of the characters from “The Things They Carried,” a good number of the people mentioned in the excerpt read showed signs of stress and anxiety from the war at hand. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is showing signs of the different stress and anxiety brought out from PTSD. Being the leader of his group of soldiers, he should be ultimately focused on the war, but continuously gets distracted with the thought of Martha. The war is so stressful for him, that there are many moments in which he would rather live in his fantasies than have to face the real world. Another person who appears to be suffering from PTSD would be the narrator of the story. Assumed to be based off of Tim O’Brien, the narrator seems to be paying close attention to everything around him. He appears to be aware of everything all the men are carrying, as well as the weight of every object they hold. He pays closer attention to everything around him that looks to relieve all of the other men and help make them less stressed. Through this he himself seems to be able to relax a little more and be more at peace with the disastrous war that surrounds them.

A coping mechanism is a useful way for people reduce the stress they feel. Coping mechanisms are great for dealing with high stress situations or after traumatic events to help relieve the stress and ease the painful scarring memories left behind by a traumatic event (Meisenhelder 47). In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien we see a lot of examples of different ways in which the characters resorted to coping mechanisms to help with their PTSD. The items carried by many of the men were supposed to represent the coping mechanism that they used to distract them from their everyday lives at war. As stated before, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries letters and pictures of the girl he always thought about, Martha. For Cross to cope with the PTSD he is dealing with, he distracts himself with the thought of Marth from reading her letters or looking at her pictures. Sometimes instead of sleeping at night he thinks about Martha, but he spends a lot of time questioning if she is a virgin. He is in love with her, but she isn’t in love with him and he knows it but he still cannot help but to think about her all the time until the death of Ted Lavender. Many other people carry other things to help them cope with the war. Kiowa carries an illustrated version of the New Testament that was given to him by his father. The bible has sentimental value because it is from his father but it offers much more than that. One of the biggest coping strategies to help deal with PTSD is faith (Meisenhelder 47). After the devastating 911 attack, a small survey showed that approximately 90% of people turned to faith to help get them through the traumatic event they had just experienced (Meisenhelder 47). Ted Lavender copes with his PTSD by using drugs as a means to calm himself. Drugs have an effect on the brain that can cause a flood of dopamine to the brain which causes a feeling of pleasure and relaxation. Lavender abuses this to help relax himself. He always carries dope around with him and uses tranquilizers to calm himself. Lavender’s drug abuse is his coping mechanism for his PTSD, and although it may work for him, it is one of the worst ways to cope with a situation like his.

Coping mechanisms are good to help relieve people of the stress they face, and in “The Things They Carried” many of the characters have different forms of coping strategies to help them face the PTSD they face during the war. The Department of Veteran Affairs thought the best strategy to help those suffering from PTSD for them to not work or stay busy, which is actually contrary of fact (Vermetten et. al 185). Some of the characters showed signs of PTSD during the conflict they were facing, and some did not show signs until after the conflict ended. In the case of Tim O’Brien himself, he began dealing with his PTSD after the Vietnam war was over. Tim O’Brien is both the author and narrator of “The Things They Carried” so everything is from his point of view. Tim O’Brien actually fought in the Vietnam war and the book he wrote about his experience shows a blur between reality and fiction. To combat the PTSD that O’Brien faced, he ended up coping with it by writing the novel. A great way for people to ease the stress and pain from the PTSD they face is for them to talk about it with someone else about the events they faced (Meisenhelder 47). O’Brien did something similar to that, however instead of speaking to one or two people about his issues, he wrote them into a book for many people to read and understand all of the tragedies that he witnessed. O’Brien was coping with the PTSD that he felt after the war by writing the novel that shows everyone else suffering from PTSD within the war period. All of the other characters in the novel showed signs of PTSD while in the war, and showed how they dealt with their PTSD. Cross coped with his PTSD using letters, pictures, and memories of a woman, Martha, whom did not even love him. Kiowa used faith, the bible, and God as a means to help him cope with his PTSD. Lavender dealt with his PTSD through the use of strong drugs to relax his mind and calm his nerves. O’Brien is the only known character to not begin coping with his PTSD until he returns home from Vietnam.

The Vietnam war was a great tragedy in US History that caused a lot of issues for those who had returned home from the conflict. Many Veterans returned home with PTSD, but many more suffered through it during the war. Throughout all of O'Brien's “The Things They Carried” many of the characters showed signs of PTSD. Many of the characters also showed different ways in which they dealt with their PTSD through a specific coping mechanism. The things that they carried, each had a special value to each person that carried it. They carried things to help them deal with their PTSD, and to help motivate them to push forward through all of the traumatic events they will face. The Vietnam war was an unnecessary and violent war that devastated the country of Vietnam, wasted countless lives fighting for no purpose, and left scaring memories that will cripple people for a lifetime.
