Soldiers who are subjected to war are forced to endure horrifying and tragic experiences. For many soldiers, these experiences from war can have lasting and life-changing effects on them. Many soldiers return home from war with wounds and battle scars, others return with mental illnesses that can be just as harmful as the physical damage done. The Vietnamese War was especially difficult for soldiers. In “Soldier’s Heart” by Louis Simpson we are given a glimpse of what life is like for a returning soldier. Simpson tells us of how he was affected by PTSD, a mental illness that can be acquired by experiencing moments of extreme stress or horror. By finding out about how PTSD affects soldiers and learning more about a soldier’s thoughts and actions while at war, we are able to get a better understanding of O’Brien’s “The Things We Carried”. Learning about the way war was waged and how soldiers were affected allows us to see how these times at war can change someone and why they use these methods as a way to cope with the atrocities they experienced.

The Vietnamese War wasn’t like most conventional wars before it in a lot of ways. The article, “Vietnam War Soldiers”, describes how it was different, “There was no war front to advance, no safe region to defend, not even a well defined theatre in which to fight in.” (Llewellyn). Unclear reasons for war and a lack of public support gave American soldiers little reason to fight. Objectives were unclear as soldiers were left wondering why they were there. The terrain of Vietnam played its part in the war as the brutal climate took its toll on the soldier’s morale. The nature of the Vietnamese war was especially grueling on soldiers. A war with Vietnam provided our troops with problems that were unique to previous wars.

 The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers used guerilla tactics and operated in the shadows to combat our troops. While the Viet Cong were under financed, they made up for this lack of funding with their ability to adapt. Viet Cong scavenged ammunition and weapons from fallen soldiers, created weapons and booby traps out of anything, and relied on their knowledge of the land and guerilla war tactics (Llewellyn). American soldiers faced danger from all around them as enemies and traps could come from anywhere at anytime. The Viet Cong were an extremely unpredictable enemy in battle. This took an extreme physical and emotional toll on the soldiers. They had underground tunnel systems that were used to sneak attack Americans and get away undetected. Another problem faced by GIs was they unclear on who was their enemy and who wasn’t. Viet Cong would dress as civilians and use teenagers to disguise their troops. Viet Cong held support with some of the natives there and used this to their advantage. They attacked American troops in villages that were supposed to be inhabited by civilians. (Llewellyn). The threat of constant danger loomed over the soldiers as they never knew from where or when they could get hit.  

The US had unclear motives in entering war with Vietnam. Their mission to secure South Vietnam and get rid of the Viet Cong seemed vague and impossible to soldiers. Much of the time, soldiers felt as if all there missions did to accomplish was to leave casualties. This left soldiers feeling worthless and angry for being there. As one soldier exclaimed, “What am I doing here? We don’t take any land. We don’t give it back. We just mutilate bodies. What the f–k are we doing here?” (LLewellyn). American soldiers felt like they were fighting a war for no reason. They lost morale as they were fighting a battle with no cause. The narrator of “The Things They Carried” also describes the lack of motivation and purpose found within the platoon, “At night they were mortared, but it was not battle, it was just the endless march, village to village, without purpose, nothing won or lost” (O’Brien 335). The soldiers didn’t care about the war or know why they were involved. The soldiers felt like puppets in a war fought by their government. To them, they had no choice but to continue on their endless march or die. The lack of a purpose or reason for the horrifying events the soldiers were put through made them feel worthless and expendable by their government.

War has always had a history of affecting those who were involved. The Vietnam War was different in that it, unlike previous American wars, was unpopular with the public. Public support was against the war in Vietnam. Most Americans were not in favor of this war and many of the soldiers were drafted into war without supporting it or understanding why. Previous wars that America was involved were usually backed by the majority of the public. Americans fought in the world wars to help restore peace and take down the “bad guys” like Hitler. Veterans from those wars returned as heroes. Much of the public was unsure of why we were fighting Vietnam and didn’t have the same support. Veterans from Vietnam were rarely hailed as heroes upon their return but, as failures or killers. Veterans that returned home needed support and understanding from their loved ones but received little as society failed to accept them. Feeling isolated and rejected by society many soldiers developed PTSD or other mental illnesses.

In a “Soldier’s Heart”, a former World War II soldier, Louis Simpson, recalls his experience in the war overseas and his return to “civilian” life. He was a member of the 101st Airborne unit of the US Army and spent time serving in France, Belgium, and Germany. He starts by describing his memories of his time on the battlefield. He recalls the deafening shrieks of bombs being dropped from above and their ensuing explosions. He recalls the feeling of knowing that had he been just a few inches to his left or right he wouldn’t be here today to tell his story. Louis was discharged from the military in 1945.

 He returned to Columbia University after the war to resume his studies. Louis claims that after returning home he “read furiously about everything” (Simpson 541). When he was not reading, he was writing; either short stories, poems, or essays. From what Simpson is told (his memory is scattered due to PTSD) he barely stopped even to eat, his roommate at the time claims he would make dinner at the apartment and offer Simpson food but he would say no. What follows Simpson is unsure of as he hears conflicting stories of himself. In one story, he is said to have lost his apartment key and have been found lying unconscious outside the door. Another friend tells him he was found wandering the streets and was picked up by police, which Simpson resisted violently. When he awoke, he was in a psychiatric ward. While at the pysch ward, Simpson received shock therapy. He claims that it helped him “get out of the fog of which he was walking” (Simpson 544). It took years for him to recover much of the memory he had of his early life and he was never able to recall the months leading up to his collapse. Other symptoms Simpson faced because of his condition were hearing voices, paranoia, detachment/ loss of feelings, and flashbacks. Simpson describes his fear of relapsing and becoming the “stranger” inside of himself, comparing himself to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Simpson found that writing is what enabled him to take back his life. He says that the way he was able to express others and the world around him through writing is what ultimately allowed him to express himself. This expression allowed him to see the value in himself and became his way of truly becoming “well”. 

In Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” it focuses on a fictional army platoon fighting in the Vietnam War, they are lead by First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Tim O’Brien introduces us to each character through the items that they were carrying. Jimmy Cross carries a picture of his love interest back home, Martha, a student in college. The story places a lot of emphasis on the items that each soldier carries out of necessity and the personal items brought with them while on their deployment. Through the listing of items that each soldier carries we are able to see the core themes of the story; loss of morality of the soldiers and the power of imagination as an escape from the real world.

 Louis Simpson’s personal narrative of his time during and after the war give us more insight into Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”. We see the true brutality of war and how it changes soldiers. In “Soldier’s Heart” Simpson describes his time as a soldier “One of them falls. The others run forward and crouch in the shelter of an embankment. Such is the life or death of an infantry soldier in France in the summer of 1944. These actions will be repeated many times” (Simpson 541). Simpson shows little empathy or compassion when he describes the life of soldiers in “Soldier’s Heart”. He talks of the willingness of soldiers to value their own lives rather than those of their companions and run to their safety instead of running to help the fallen. He also speaks of this as if it was normal to witness these deaths and tells of how this occurred often, further enforcing the ideal that loss of life is not a very big ordeal for soldiers. The soldiers of “The Things They Carried” experience the same discontent for human life, “They had no sense of strategy or mission. They searched the villages without knowing what to look for, not caring, kicking over jars of rice, frisking children and old men, blowing tunnels, sometimes setting fires sometimes not, then forming up and moving on to the next village” (O’Brien 335). The soldiers talk of burning villages and frisking civilians as though they are no big deal. These violent war activities are referred to in lists; this violence is just another part of daily life the soldiers have become accustomed to. To them burning villages was just another thing to do, not caring about the lives they were endangering or damage caused. In “The Things They Carried” this theme of soldiers losing their empathy/ morality continues when we are revealed that Norman Bower, one of the soldier’s in Lt. Cross’ platoon, carries around a thumb of a fallen Vietcong soldier. Another soldier in the platoon gifted Norman this thumb when they came across the fallen soldier on a march. Once coming across the body, believed to be that of a 15 or 16-year-old, they removed the thumb. “Sanders wrapped the thumb in toilet paper and handed it across to Norman Bowker. There was no blood. Smiling, he kicked the boy’s head”. This gives a perfect example of how war takes the innocence of our young soldiers and makes them into ruthless killers.

The amount of stress and hardships soldiers face during war can be overwhelming for many of these soldiers. While at war, soldiers are torn between two lives. They are taken from their safe and familiar lives and placed in a lifechanging war zone. In “Soldier’s Heart” Simpson talks of how he acquired post-traumatic stress syndrome once he returned for war. The shock of going from a structured and peril filled life to a “relaxed and free” civilian life can be too much for veterans to handle. Simpson finds it hard to re-adjust back to civilian life and is unable to cope with the horrors he witnessed during his time overseas. Simpson was able to help better his condition by means of escaping and expressing himself through writing. Simpson, unable to relate to the people around him, turned to writing to find his peace. Much like Simpson, Lt. Jimmy Cross is faced with hard times during his time at war. Jimmy Cross like Simpson, finds it hard to separate his life in war from his life back at home. At first, while Jimmy is in command he allows his platoon to be lax in their duties. He allows them to throw out supplies and smoke dope while he is busy in his own thoughts. While at war, Jimmy Cross is too caught up in his fantasies of Martha that he puts his platoon at risk and allows one of his soldiers, Ted Lavendar to die. The narrator seemingly too distraught to talk of the death of Lavendar brings up the subject of his death multiple times in the beginning but never going into detail. Each time he begins talk of Lavendar’s death in the beginning, he immediately reverts back to talking of the things that each soldier carries seemingly not wanting to bring up the sensitive subject or feeling too guilty over the death. “Ted Lavendar, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khein mid-April. By necessity, and because it was SOP, they all carried steel helmets that weighed 5 pounds including the liner and camouflage cover” (O’Brien 328). The narrator changes subjects quickly avoiding the topic of Lavendar’s death, showing the guilt felt by Cross. Even the narrator, like Cross and Simpson, has problems addressing the realities of war and takes himself out of the experience by listing objects carried by soldiers. Later in the story, Cross who previously resorted to escaping into his imagination to cope is able to acknowledge his guilt in the death of his friend. He then, burns his pictures of Martha and cracks down on the platoon, no longer allowing laziness and making his rules for the platoon stricter. Cross becomes so frustrated with his inability to separate his two lives that he burns his letters and pictues of Martha; his only link to his life back home, his only escape from the brutality war. In both stories, we are able to see the struggle of soldiers to keep their lives as civilians and soldiers separate and both find it hard to cope with the experiences witnessed while at war. In both stories, our soldiers try to find solace in a fantasy world that effectively takes them out of the real world and into their own.

 The unique war in which Vietnam veterans engaged in created extreme stress and hardships for them. Upon returning Vietnam veterans faced an unprecedented lack of support from the American public. Instead of coming home to parades and being seen as war heroes like veterans from other wars, Vietnam veterans were often shunned and called killers for their service to their country. Veterans of Vietnam felt isolated and had a loss of identity due to their unwelcomed return. This lead to a large amount of veterans getting PTSD and other post war related mental illnesses. While at war, soldiers struggled to keep their life at home and life at war separate. Soldiers lost their sense of morality because of the violence they were exposed to. With this loss of morality soldiers further lost their sense of identity; no longer being able to recognize themselves. Soldiers were forced to distance themselves from themselves as they became disillusioned with the war. They put themselves in fantasy worlds in order to escape from the reality they faced. As we see in “The Things We Carried”, soldiers saw objects as ways to distract themselves from the terrible things they were forced to do and see. We see veterans from other wars using imagination as a similar means to cope with the hardships of war. Louis Simpson gets PTSD after returning from WWII. After bouts with PTSD lead Simpson to lose his memory and become paranoid we see him escape into his writing to combat this. O’Brien, a war Vietnam veteran, likely writes his account of war in “The Things They Carried’ to help him better cope with and share his time at war. O’Brien like Simpson, uses this story to make better sense of his war experience and to use it an as outlet to address his feelings and escape from the American public who didn’t support him and his fellow veterans.
