In the excerpt, 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 points out these things “carried” to show what soldiers deal with inside the actual war itself. This novel points out things that otherwise would be over looked by today’s society.  

In the excerpt, The Things They Carried, Kiowa explains “how the poor guy dropped like so much concrete” (Carolina Reader, 331). 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, this is exactly what post-traumatic stress is. Today’s society seems to not understand post-traumatic stress disorder; today’s society does not understand that watching someone die is more than a television show or movie. But the blame is not solely on today’s society 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” (Leslie Roberts, 1). 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. False information put out there for the world to see has caused people to misunderstand the truth about post-traumatic stress and how it affects veterans. Tim O’Brien exposes readers to the reality of post-traumatic stress when he explains how Kiowa replays the death of Lavender in his head repeatedly. 

Also in The Things They Carried, the author tells us about Jimmy Crosses Love for a girl from back home. The love for this girl, who he knows does not love him the same way, 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. Charles C. Hendrix’s and Lisa M. Anelli’s article, Impact of War Service on Veterans’ Perceptions of Family Life, tells 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. Tim O’Brien tells us “he would sometimes taste the envelope flaps, knowing her tongue had once been there” (Carolina Reader, 328). This is another example of what post-traumatic stress can do. 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 the soldiers become a different person. 

In 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. Time is misunderstood because when today’s society thinks about soldiers spending time overseas, what the soldiers go through is not thought about, all that is thought about is when soldiers leave and when they come back. It seems like this because today’s society is, for the most part, left in the dark about what goes on in the war. 

The Things They Carried does not come right out and say post-traumatic stress disorder is a major part of war, but when one researches about post-traumatic stress disorder the reader will notice the impact post-traumatic stress has on a veteran. The Things They Carried shows the reader how Kiowa was stunned by what he witnessed, this shows the reader what the effects of post-traumatic stress are and how it can affect a soldier. The Things They Carried also showed the reader what kind of psychological impact post-traumatic stress can have on a soldier, like it had on Lieutenant Cross and the way he thinks about Martha. This excerpt connects the reader to how veterans with post-traumatic stress hallucinate and imagine things that are not real. Today, post-traumatic stress disorder is misunderstood. In today’s society, people believe the first thing seen, 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. Today’s society must realize that post-traumatic stress is an issue and stop overlooking it because of ignorance.
