If a person has nothing to live for how do they go about their life? If a person has no connections to the real world, and an inability to form relationships with people how are they supposed to find people to give them a purpose? Everyone has to have a reason to get up in the morning, or else they will start to get emotionally detached from society along with not know how to fit in. Everyone is different and has something that will keep them going and give them a reason to live. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien the cultural connection between a soldier in war and how society will function with them is expressed. The protagonist Jimmy Cross ends up losing all ties to the real world. The only thing that helped him get through everything he had to deal with was Martha, who was a girl he met one day at a restaurant. Following the lost of Martha, mentally he had no ties to the real world and suffered from PTSD. He could only focus on things solely related to war and destruction. This is common amongst soldiers who have no ties to people and only know war. They are then brainwashed with the negative and horrific events that have occurred, and believe that these events are natural and everyday occurrences. This is what happened to Jimmy Cross following the lost of Martha. Sadly it happens to more people then him in this short story. The cultural connection between a soldier and society is almost impossible to deal with because 31 percent of soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War, which is what The Things They Carried is based of on, suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder.

Some people who suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder try and institute a safe haven to help them remain calm and sane. For Jimmy Cross Martha was that safe haven. “He picture Martha’s smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her”(331). The death of Ted Lavender was a tragedy and Jimmy Cross puts all the blame on Martha. At the moment he got killed he was daydreaming about whether or not Martha was a virgin, and after he realized that Lavender was dead he still kept thinking about her. Following that he came to reality at what happened, and vowed to only focus on war and erase Martha from his life. Martha was the only thing that kept Jimmy Cross going and now she was gone because in his mind she was negatively affecting him. This will only lead to more severe PTSD as he has nothing to help him deal with the tragedy of Lavender. The long lasting effects of a tragedy on a person will lead them to cover up and act sheltered in order to refrain from remembering that tragic event in which they had to deal with.  If a certain thing brings up so many bad memories which wont allow a person to live their everyday life, that person will do everything in their power to block that memory out so they can go about their life as if it never happened. The scary part about trying to block a memory is that at any given point it can most likely be triggered if something at all even remotely relates to the past time that person once had. In The Things They Carried, the main character Jimmy Cross is so reliable on Martha that he uses her as a cover for not being emotionally connected to the war and all that it comes with. He gives himself false hope by believing that she truly loves him and that when he is done with his tour that she will still be there waiting for him. He only wants to believe this because she is the only one in his life who keeps him connected to the real world along with keeps him sane. When he looses touch with her then Jimmy Cross is sure to fall apart. When in a situation where tragedy is destined that person needs a safe haven to go to. If that person doesn’t have a safe haven then they are more likely to self-destruct. Posttraumatic stress disorder will take over Jimmy Crosse’s life and make it ultimately very difficult to connect in any way with the real world. 

Not only does PTSD affect Jimmy Cross in The Things They Carried but it also interrupts with the natural lifestyles of his comrades. “He put his hand on the dead boys wrist. He was quiet for a time, as if counting a pulse, then he patted the stomach almost affectionately and used kiowas’s hunting hatchet to remove the thumb”(334). Not only is Jimmy Cross affected, but everyone around his as well that is going through what he was. They have no morals anymore and see nothing wrong with cutting the hand off, and then cutting the finger off of a little boy. Following that they kicked the boy’s head. For a person to feel no remorse from beating some kid up after he is already dead in front of them shows that they don’t know what to stand for anymore. This is a sign of posttraumatic stress disorder, as had they never been put into the situation of war in their minds this action would’ve never been tolerable. This is major because it shows the affects of war. The soldiers are so used to destruction, and sadness and stress that it takes over their minds and forces them to change all the beliefs they have learned growing up. This part of PTSD is one of the most difficult things to think about, because these people are wrecked for the rest of their life, and at some point they have to come back to the real world because they cant just fight forever. When they come to the real world, is where the statistics will kick in for the people who suffer from PTSD who served in the Vietnam war. These soldiers can not form cultural connections with anybody because they don’t know what’s tolerable in society since the society they’re used to being in is so tragic. 

It hurts soldiers to know that soldiers are messed up in the head and that they most likely will never be able to go back unless they go thorough counseling, which is expensive, or depend on handling things themselves. They are aware of the tragedies they have to deal with and then carry with them for the rest of their lives. Sadly this is another instance in which PTSD comes into play “Among the men there would be grumbling, of course, and maybe worse, because their days would seem longer and their loads heavier, but lieutenant jimmy cors reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved but to lead”(341) Jimmy wants to make it so he never has to love anybody again, because he is furious about what happened with Martha and who played apart in the death of Lavender in some way. He destroys all things related to Martha and vows to never daydream about her again along with not allowing himself ever to love again. If you never love again he will find no one to help guide him in life once he has to come back to society. He vows only to listen to the lead bullets coming out of his gun. At this point there is no going back for Jimmy Cross. He is fully brainwashed and will stay that was unless he finds another Martha or is reconnected with someone like the way he was with Martha. PTSD will takeover his life, and changes it for the worst. The connection he will share with anyone is going to be far from what is accepted with the norm.   

All in all in The Things They Carried post traumatic stress disorder is clearly expressed and hinders the way all of the characters act. The only character that had something that was the equivalent to a safe haven was Jimmy Cross however he lost that thing which kept him sane which was Martha. From that he let the full affects of PTSD kick in. PTSD is terrible disease that can make a persons life do a complete 180 and it’s terrible that it is so hard to treat. PTSD amongst soldiers can cause a person to make it almost impossible to have any connections with someone. All they know is how to be ferocious and all the characteristics that come with a soldier. Everyone needs a connection and a purpose for being on the earth. When a person looses that what is their reason for doing anything anymore?
