“The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’ Brien emphasizes the horrors of the Vietnam War and the traumatic social and emotional effects that it had on all of its participants.  The war served as inspiration for many of the themes that are found in not only this story, but much of the literature composed during this time period.  The specific aspect of the war that had the greatest impact on the writing during the time period was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms that in many ways crippled the soldiers even more than the physical injuries that they had lived through.  PTSD affected the Vietnam soldiers’ lives with both interpersonal relationships as well as their natural train of thought to a degree that was beyond repair, and Tim O’ Brien expresses that in his work through the eyes of his main character Lieutenant Jimmy Cross.

The first and most evident aspect of PTSD, that was expressed by writers of the time period, and especially in “The Things They Carried,” was how the soldiers’ familial and sexual relations changed as a result of the war.  This is one of the premier themes of “The Things They Carried,” because in the story Lieutenant Cross believed that he could have prevented one of his men, Ted Lavender, from dying if he was not daydreaming about the love of his life Martha.  In this scene, Lavender is using the bathroom after the team secured a mine, and as he was walking back to the group he was shot and killed instantly.  At this moment, Cross was daydreaming about Martha, which he believes to be the reason for Lavender’s death.  Lavender’s death was a severe turning point in the course of the story.  A reason for this is that throughout the novel the narrator evaluates time based on if an even occurred before Lavender was shot or after he was shot, similar to the way we use “Before the Common Era (BCE)” and “Anno Domini (AD),” in the real world to categorize time periods.  It was as if at this moment that the reality and nature of the situation that they were in hit the group of soldiers, and made them realize that at any moment any one of them could encounter the same fate as Lavender.  It was PTSD that Cross suffered from this event that forced him to expurgate any emotional connection that he had to the fantasized image he had created of Martha.  He did this by burning the photographs that he had of her, which he kept with him at all times, and discarding the pebble that served as his good luck charm, which he was constantly revolving in his mouth.  This was a common theme amongst soldiers of the war, because many of them felt as though if they thought of anything but the war itself then it would serve as a potentially fatal distraction.  Carol Macdonald, who is the author of "The Combat Exposure Scale: A Systematic Assessment Of Trauma In The Vietnam War," led a study that supports the theme of PTSD disturbing sexual and family relations.  The study proved that soldiers who had fought in Vietnam struggled heavily with not only starting but maintaining relationships on the global level.  This means that the overall concept of a relationship is difficult for them to grasp because they were forced to deflect their focus from them for such an elongated and stressful time during the war.  The end analysis of the study also proved that when a former – soldier attempts to retrieve that level of emotional connection to their significant others that they once had the heartache and turmoil of the war is brought to life because of their terminal emotional connection to the war itself.

Another symptom of PTSD that many soldiers from Vietnam experience is a constant feeling of tremendous guilt. This correlates perfectly to the scenario that occurred in “The Things They Carried,” when Jimmy Cross felt the overwhelming guilt of Lavender’s death.  This is because he firmly believed that if he was not daydreaming about Martha he would have been able to change the outcome of the situation.  Martha Lund, who is the author of “The Combat Exposure Scale: A Systematic Assessment Of Trauma In The Vietnam War," (Citation: Lund, Mary, et al. "The Combat Exposure Scale: A Systematic Assessment Of Trauma In The Vietnam War." Journal Of Clinical Psychology 40.6 (1984): 1323-1328. Academic Search Alumni Edition. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.) analyzed this severe guilt in her novel.  According to Lund, this feeling stems from an idea that is constantly lurking in the back of the veteran’s minds that they could have prevented the deaths or injuries of their fellow soldiers, or that they could improve the situation.  Lund also states in her discussion that the level of guilt which one experiences relates to the amount of stress that they accumulated prior to the tragedy which they witnessed whether it be an injury or a fatality.  This theory relates well to “The Things They Carried,” because the main premise of the story is both the physical and figurative weight of all the emotional burdens and physical ammunition the soldiers had to carry with them throughout the war.

The final symptom of PTSD that the Vietnam soldiers experience post war is an intense and many times blind devotion to a supreme or absolute power.  In other words, this is an inability to think individually or with any unique characteristics.  According to Erwin Rosenthal, who authored "Vietnam War Soldiers And The Experience Of Normlessness,” this is because the reality of situation was so devastating that the soldiers had to have complete trust that their superiors had their best intentions (including their health) in mind as well as a plan that would end the war quickly and efficiently.  Erwin believed that their leaders symbolized a sign of hope so in order to escape the living hell that they were confined in they would have to conform to them with an obedience and trust that was mentally un – paralleled to anything that any of the men or women had experienced because in this circumstance their lives literally depended on it.  This stance is supported in “The Things They Carried,” because in end of the story when the narrator is discussing the emotional baggage that the soldiers carried he said that the soldiers marched up and down the mountainous terrain of Vietnam with a seemingly blind sense of trust that they were making the correct strategic movie, regardless of what they were thinking individually. Rosenthal states that the soldiers experience a condition of anomy.   This is a condition that refers to a condition of normlessness and deregulation that is related to sudden change when limits are imposed on one’s dreams and aspirations.  This can be related to a type of “pack or group mentality” where all independence is lost because of the confined situation that one is placed in.  The Vietnam War was like this because the penalty of not acting as a fluent and machine – like group could be the loss of lives.  PTSD has had a severe and life changing impact on many important qualities of the Vietnam Soldiers’ social lives.  In many ways the war had influenced the soldiers to an extent that it is a monumental task for them to correctly achieve the societal norms that the average American citizen may deem crucial to being civil and accepted.  The soldiers’ PTSD makes it exceedingly difficult for them to have close interpersonal relationships, because while they were deployed their focus had to be shifted so abruptly to the everyday rigor of the war that they were forced to forget about all other distractions including their loved ones.  The soldiers also return to their families with emotional guilt that always effects their decision making and is a constant in the way their brain was re wired during the war.  Lastly, Many of the soldiers lost their sense of individuality because they had to act as a unified and fully functional force similar to that of a machine for such an elongated period of time and under extremely stressful conditions.  The emotional toll that the Vietnam War had on the workers had a significant impact on the tone and genre of the literature during the era in which Tim O’ Brien wrote.  The Vietnam War had an austere mental impact on all of the men and women involved, and with the emotional turmoil came lasting emotional and physical scars that were the subjects of many literary works not only during the time period, but into the current day.  In Tim O’ Brien’s work, he describes the emotional and physical burdens that each of the soldier’s carry throughout the stress filled and hopeless lands of Vietnam.
