In the novel, The Things They Carried the author, Tim O’Brien, tells the reader about what each soldier, in the war, “carries”. When talking about something a soldier “carries” the author does not just mention physical objects like M-16 Rifles, .45 caliber pistols, PRC-25 radio, AK-47s and other gear but he mentions how the soldiers carry other intangibles like grief =, terror, longing, love, guilt, and fear. Tim O’Brien tells the reader some of the situations the soldiers go through during the war and he tells the reader what the soldiers “carried” but one thing the author does not show the reader is what affect all these different situations and things they “carried” did to the soldiers’ lives. Tim O’Brien does not tell the reader how the war time and post-traumatic stress the soldiers endured affected their life. Reading this novel could make one feel that the affects post-traumatic stress has on veteran’s lives is misunderstood and not taking seriously.

On page three-thirty-one in the novel, The Things They Carried, Kiowa explained “how the poor guy dropped like so much concrete.” When Kiowa says “dropped like so much concrete” he is explaining what he witnessed when he watched his comrade, Ted Lavender, get shot in the head on the way back from using the bathroom. Kiowa replays this over and over in his head and would one say that that is not post-traumatic stress disorder? Today’s generation does not understand post-traumatic stress disorder; this generation does not understand that watching someone die is more than a television show or movie. But the blame is not solely on this generation for being ignorant, part of the blame is on the inaccurate studies done on post-traumatic stress disorder. This claim is backed up by Leslie Roberts when he states “a new study, funded by the Veterans Administration, has found that four hundred seventy thousand (fifteen percent) Vietnam veterans still suffer from a major psychological disorder directly related to the war.” A study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, found only sixty-six thousand (two percent) were affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. Richard Kulka believes these results were different because the interviews used by the Center for Disease Control were never tested to see if it tests well for post-traumatic stress disorder. When false information is put out there to the public it makes the readers and listeners believe what that information is stating. This can cause people to misunderstand the truth, and in this case, it can cause people to misunderstand the truth about how many veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. 

In the novel, The Things They Carried the author tells us about Jimmy Crosses Love for a girl from back home. The love for this girl (who does not love him the same) caused Lieutenant Cross to zone out and daydream and in the long run gets one of his soldiers, Lavender, killed. This example of how Lieutenant Cross, to some extent, gets Lavender killed shows the reader how the situations soldiers deal with outside of the war can affect them while they are in the war and it shows how a soldier’s psychological state can affect their accountability. Hendrix’s and Lisa’s article backs this statement up by telling the reader that a soldier’s psychological state has negative effects and the negative effects will affect those surrounding them during their time at war. In the first paragraph on page three-hundred twenty-eight the author tells us “he would sometimes taste the envelope flaps, knowing her tongue had once been there.” This is no doubt extremely weird to the reader but after doing research this shows how post-traumatic stress disorder can change the way someone, in this case Lieutenant Cross, views on relationships. Post-traumatic stress causes soldiers to change and act different which makes them become someone they are not. 

In the novel, The Things They Carried, the author mentions what the soldiers carried, what the soldiers do, and what the soldiers have been through but one thing that he does not mention is the amount of time the soldiers were at war. The fact that he does not give the reader this information may give the reader the impression that war time might not be that important. Charles C. Hendrix’s and Lisa M. Anelli’s article goes against that idea by showing studies that support the claims that increasing levels of wartime traumatic experiences would be associated with higher levels of the psychological impact of war service. In a war, all kinds of things happen throughout the time soldiers are battling that could affect a soldier’s psychological state. These things could be getting shot at, having bombs go off 15 feet in front of them, getting attacked, witnessing their comrade get killed, and the list goes on. Therefore, Time should be talked about more often when talking about war and post-traumatic stress disorder because studies show that they intertwine. 

The Things They Carried does not come right out and say post-traumatic stress disorder is a major part of war but when the reader researches about post-traumatic stress disorder they will be able to break down the text and look deeper into it and notice that post-traumatic stress plays a big part in this novel. First the reader will be able to notice point out that Kiowa is stunned by what he witnessed and the reader can connect that to what veterans have seen when they were in battle. Second the reader will be able to point out that post-traumatic stress has affected the way Lieutenant Cross leads and the way he views his relationship with Martha. After research the reader can connect this to how veterans with post-traumatic stress hallucinate and imagine things that are not real. Then after research the reader will be able to tell how big a factor time is when talking about post-traumatic stress. In today’s generation, post-traumatic stress disorder is misunderstood but it is not misunderstood because nobody wants to hear about but because people do not say the right thing about it. In today’s world people believe the first they see, that’s why false statements must be checked so that things like post-traumatic stress and the affect it has on a veteran’s life is taken seriously. 
