How The Vietnam War Revealed In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

In the "Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien, Tim O'Brien, Norman Bowker, and the young boy whose name was never revealed are all examples of soldiers who couldn't or at least had a hard time talking about their expiriences in war. In the NPR interview with Tim O'Brien one caller who happened to be a Vietnam soldier said he “couldn’t tell anybody what [he] had witnessed”. Many of the soliders who served in Vietnam had a hard time talking about their experiences of the war. The soldiers felt as if nobody cared about how they felt because they were supposed to be strong-minded individuals. If they had someone to talk to often times bringing up memories of the horrifying scenes of the war made their situation worse. For Tim O'Brien, his daughter

Unlike Tim, after the war, Bowker never was able to find a place where he felt he was needed. It was almost as if everything he remembered before the war was the complete opposite. This accompanied with the fact that Bowker still felt guilt for not saving Kiowa's life made it impossible for Norman to find happiness post-war. Norman kept running situations through his head of how he could talk about the war to his family and old friends but all thought about telling them is how he wasn't "uncommonly brave" (135). Bowker's head kept circuling back to how he wished he would've saved Kiowa which killed his mental health. All of the build up depression and anger never escaped his head and "three years" (149) later Bowker hung himself in the locker room of a "YMCA" (149) in his

The young boy "blamed himself" (162) for the death of Kiowa. On the night that Kiowa was killed the young boy was talking to Kiowa and eventaully took out a "flashlight" (163) and pointed it at a picture of his girlfriend to show Kiowa what she looked like. Moments after he shined the flashlight on the picture the field around them "exploded" (163). When the field exploded the young boy heard a scream and instanlty knew it was "Kiowa" (163). Realizing that one of his good friend's death was his fault mentally killed the man. He was constantly holding back tears and his shoulders were "shaking" (162). Eventually the young boy confessed to Jimmy Cross that the he was to blame for the death of Kiowa. This lifted some of the weight off of the boy's shoulders but it was still hard for him to feel happiness or any sort of