Tim O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried is the description of the lives and hardships of a first lieutenant named Jimmy Cross and his company in the Vietnam War. This book shows the reader many of the challenges faced by the soldiers and how they coped with the stresses of war. It also shows the readers the conditions that the United States solders had to undergo during the war, which gives the reader insight on the repercussions of experiencing the horrors of war. The story shows the reader that whether or not the things the soldiers carried were essential to winning a war, they carried them in order to keep a level head in the midst of all of the chaos around them. Throughout his short story, O’Brien shows the reader how U.S. soldiers coped with war by showing the reader what they carried, the effects of PTSD on soldiers, and accurately gives the reader a better idea of how the soldiers reacted to the stresses of war, both mentally and physically, as verified by several reliable sources. 

Most if not all U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam war experienced some sort of mental trauma during the war. After the war, most of them thought they could just move on with live and forget about the war. This was true for some people, but those who had profoundly traumatic experiences during the war still endure the mental repercussions to this day. When soldiers came back from the war, they would show symptoms of PTSD such as anxiety, hesitancy, inability to focus, and avoidance or withdrawal from reality. During the time after the Vietnam War, those U.S. soldiers who showed these symptoms were diagnosed with what they called back then, shell shock or battle fatigue. “The disorder was officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association only in 1980,” when the term PTSD was used as a medical term to diagnose soldiers who showed symptoms of shell shock or battle fatigue (Roberts 788).

On several occasions throughout O’Brien’s story, he shows the reader the anxiety that the unforgiving nature of war caused U.S. soldiers to have. This is clearly evidenced when all of the men in Cross’s company have to choose a random number to see who will have to risk their lives to investigate holes they blew in in the ground. Some of the soldier’s main concerns about crawling in these holes were, “Will your flashlight go dead? Do rats carry rabies? Would they [your comrades] have the courage to drag you out?” (O’Brien 333). What caused the most anxiety, above any other stressor, in soldiers was the not knowing. O’Brien emphasizes how much a soldier’s “Imagination” caused that vast majority of their anxiety, which led to such great mental problems that were not recognized as true illnesses by most people in America (O’Brien 333). The anxiety that Cross experiences here is by no means and isolated incident for him or any of his comrades. As confirmed by many reliable sources such as the Veterans Administration and the Centers for Disease Control, cases of shell shock or PTSD are not rare. In fact, 470,000 of the 3.14 million soldiers who fought in the Vietnam war suffered from PTSD after the war was over (Roberts 788). This book is consistent with many modern, reliable studies that indicate that PTSD or any mental disorders caused in U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam was by no means uncommon. Because American soldiers were exposed to so many stressful situations, they carried personal items with them no matter how practical they were in order to keep a level head. O’Brien even says that, “Ted Lavender carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity,” which just goes to shows the lengths people go just to have a calm conscience (O’Brien 329).

Sometimes a soldier can become so stressed that the symptoms of PTSD can manifest in a soldier during war, in the midst of battle. O’Brien shows one symptom of PTSD becoming apparent in a soldier when, “Lieutenant Cross gazed at the tunnel. But He was not there” (O’Brien 333). Here, war has put Lieutenant Cross in a state of unresponsiveness because he is trying to avoid the outside world, one of the symptoms of PTSD. All he can think about is the love that he has for Martha, the women he is in love with. Just like every soldier has their way of dealing with war, writing letter to the live of his life, Martha, is Cross’s way of dealing with the stresses of war. This situation clearly shows how the stresses of war effect soldiers during battle and not just after the war ended. In, “Study Raises Estimate of Vietnam War Stress,” it is stated that, “The main symptoms include the … avoidance or withdrawal of the outside world,” which verifies that symptoms of PTSD are also prevalent in the midst of battle and can put soldier’s and their comrade’s lives at risk (Roberts 788). In this scene, Cross is just standing there while Lee Srunk is investigating the potentially live threatening hole and while all of his other comrades are vigilantly keeping watch, protecting Strunk if anything were to go wrong above ground. If something bad were to happen above ground while Strunk was underground, Cross would be putting the life of him and those of his comrades at risk because he is stuck in a paralytic state where he is aware of what is going on around him, but consciously chooses to ignore reality. This shows the reader that the symptoms of PTSD can not only be live threatening to the soldier it is mentally affecting, but the soldiers whose lives are his responsibility. 

The story also portrays the most horrifying aspects of war that caused the most mental issues in soldiers. In one scene, right as a soldier emerges from a hole, relieved he is not dead, “Right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head” and one of his comrades says in shock, “Oh shit, that guy’s dead” (O’Brien 334). Going immediately from a state of relief that a dear comrade has just survived a life threatening mission to a state of shock that a comrade has just died is definitely an experience that would give a soldier some mental issues. Also the shocked way in which the soldier recognized that his friend had just died shows the reader that these men have not been exposed to this level war or of stress before in a war setting. McAllister verifies that these men have never experienced war quite like this when he says, “The U.S. Army was wedded to a concept of warfare that heavily emphasized the overwhelming firepower, search and destroy missions, and conventional uses of force” (McAllister 96). This shows that the soldier’s fighting in Vietnam were not used to the type of warfare that requires constant awareness because of mines that could go off any second and because of hidden snipers like the one that killed Ted Lavender. This also shows that reader that the U.S. Army’s military strategies that they used during the were not efficient. Because they kept using these brutal military strategies that were not working, there were many unnecessary deaths of soldiers, which in the end put an enormous stress on the minds of those soldiers lucky enough to survive. 

One of the aspects of war that caused PTSD in U.S. soldiers is very subtly portrayed in O’Brien’s story. During the Vietnam war, many soldiers would have episodes where they would freeze up just like Lieutenant Cross did when he was watching Srunk descend into the hole. These episodes were partially due to the regulatory nature of war. Because all soldiers could think about were the horrors of war, there was no way for soldiers too properly process their emotions. After Lavender is carried off by a helicopter, “He tried not to cry,” but he could not because of the responsibilities of war such as leading his comrades and making sure they are safe at all time. This shows the reader that there is not much room in war for feelings. The regulatory nature of war that limits soldiers to express their emotions is also shown through the way in which O’Brien describes the soldier’s gear. Soldiers would carry thinks like, “jungle boots -2.1 pounds-,” “steel helmets that weighted 5 pounds,” and “letters [weighing] 10 ounces” (O’Brien 328). The fact that each soldier knew how much each and every item they carried weighed shows the reader how regulated war is.

Overall, O’Brien does a good job of accurately portraying to the reader the unpredictable and life threatening conditions that U.S. soldiers were forced to endure during the Vietnam War. He shows how even the smallest things such as a soldier’s imagination can give them so much anxiety that they simply freeze in the midst of battle, leaving the lives that they are responsible for at great risk. This was confirmed as a symptom of PTSD by Roberts which shows the reader that PTSD has dangerous effects not only after war, but also during war. He also shows the reader the most horrifying aspects of war that were caused by the U.S. army not knowing the proper military strategies to use to win the war. 
