In the novel The things they Carried By: Tim O’Brien, a major issue the characters struggle with throughout the novel is PTSD(Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). These drawings represent different flashbacks that soldiers diagnosed with PTSD have encountered such as explosions,near death experience, another soldier 's death, etc. In addition, these illustrations represent situations that soldiers witness and experience during combat. Secondly, these flashbacks that are influenced by PTSD, act as everlasting nightmare that haunts soldiers. In the chapter “Notes” the narrator says “Norman Bowker had three years later hung himself in a YMCA locker room.”(O 'Brien.149). This shows that soldiers in this novel can be mentally and emotionally