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Emotional and psychological effects of war
Essays on war and trauma
Vietnam war mental effects
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Emotional and psychological effects of war
Essays on war and trauma
Vietnam war mental effects
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Emotional and psychological effects of war
In “The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell”, John Crawford shows how war can drastically change soldiers by having psychological effects on them and when soldiers come back from war they can feel like they are alone. Some psychological effects are post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, depression,
The grueling Vietnam War, disrupting the lives of soldiers and their families, un-packs its complexities through the journey of the soldiers. After the death of Curt Lemon, a fellow soldier, O’Brien exclaims, “War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love” (80). O’Brien’s metaphor conveys his perception of the Vietnam War while setting a strong precedent of what the war really was like. Furthermore, it is evident that the complexities of war are hard to navigate as soldiers, tearing away at their mental health, revealing soldier’s experiences at war that corrode their overall well-being. Furthermore, this toll on overall-well being can be self-inflicted when soldiers assign blame to themselves as guilt culminates into lifelong burdens.
As O’Brien tells what he would consider to be a ture war story of two young Vietnam soldiers he writes, “ They were kids; they just didn’t know. A nature hike, they thought, not even a war … they were giggling and calling each other yellow mother and playing a silly game they invented” (O’Brien 270). With O’briens words he reminices with his readers about childhood. The soldiers he writes about, under different circumstances, could have easily been kids in a school yard or a summer camp. True war stories show the gruesomeness of war, childrens lives lost faster than the blink of an eye.
People who have served in the war are usually honored and praised for their service and for fighting for the country, but the majority do not understand what they do through. The book “A Rumor of War” by Phillip Caputo discusses his experience, his journey in a way that helps masses comprehend and grasp the concept of a first-hand experience of what it is like to serve in the war. Simply, as the author has worded, “the things men do in war and the things war does to them”. It is stated behind the book with a blurb that “A Rumor of War is far more than one soldier’s story.” As well as how it is a basis of the Vietnam war.
Philip Caputo’s narrative model of a “vicarious tour of duty” in his memoir A Rumor of War humanizes the American military in Vietnam by removing the reader from preconceptions, presenting a multifaceted account of combat, and describing the landscape and environment of the American War in Vietnam in vivid detail. As a Marine lieutenant and as a survivor of the war, Caputo’s account is limited by nature, but he maintains a broad representation of the American War through his descriptions of the environment and by reiterating the significance of his peers' deaths, especially as the American casualty rate increased. Caputo’s conclusion that the extent of suffering in combat cannot be described secondhand and his explicit goal of documentation
Throughout the story, many of the characters experience the hardships of war in one way or another, whether it is a direct or secondhand impact. The maturity the boys develop throughout the novel demonstrates the way war can negatively impact one’s mental health.
In “A Rumor of War”, Philip Caputo goes into detail about the psychological effects that fighting in the Vietnam War had on American military personnel beyond just their physical injuries. The war was hard on all the people involved. The war deeply affected the values, ethics, and cultural norms of those involved. Caputo exposes the raw reality of war, he paints a vivid portrait of the loss of innocence, moral ambiguity, desensitization to violence, and the trauma that followed them after the war was over. Through the experiences of him and other people, Caputo illustrates the emotions and struggles that defined the Vietnam War generation.
The soldiers in the Vietnam War are portrayed as losing themselves in the chaos and trauma of combat. Through the stories of the soldiers and their experiences, O’Brien explores the ways in which war strips away one's sense of identity and humanity. The author himself is depicted as losing himself in the war. O'Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his experiences inspired much of the book. Through the character of Tim O'Brien, the author explores the ways in which war can strip away one's sense of self and purpose.
War has a profound and lasting impact on individuals and society. In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he tells different stories of before, during and after war and how it affects the soldiers, mentally and physically. In these stories Tim O’Brien illustrates these traumas and the long-lasting effects and impact that the war will always have on these men. Even though all the men didn’t survive the ones that did continue to have traumatic flashbacks. War has a lasting impact on individuals and society, affecting not only the physical but the mental and emotional well-being of those involved.
The death of Johnnyleaves the audience feeling sympathy for him. Johnny indulges the tragedy of a victim of the government's propaganda into assuming a better life for him after the war. Johnny makes an effort to write in his letter to his mother the horrifying reality of war, he uses his heroic characteristic to try and convince others not to enlist in war. Some people can argue the fact that Johnny can not be portrayed as a hero for the reason in which he drank as well as enlisted for “selfish” reasons
Many soldiers that served in the Vietnam war suffered dramatically pertaining to mental and physical health. O’Brien and many other soldiers also had the same views on the Vietnam War, such as that it was pointless for the United States. Most soldiers were frustrated with the fact that they were fighting for their country with no purpose or benefit for the American people. In the book O’Brian said, “I can’t stop crying. I can’t stop thinking of what a waste it all was” (O’Brian 7).
O’Brien was not the only teenage boy to fight in this war, ?? says that “the average age of U.S. service members in Vietnam was 19, seven years younger than in WWII, making soldiers even more susceptible to psychological strain” (the big reader). The Author took his own experiences and perceptions and applied them to the lives of his characters, which allows readers to also become a part of his stories by incorporating those experiences that everyone can relate
The Vietnam War is widely considered one of the most traumatizing wars ever and had at least 58,220 recorded deaths. In his 1990 war novel, author Tim O’Brien asserts that easing the pain of trauma is extremely difficult to manage. However, through memories, storytelling, and limiting the weight of emotional agony, alleviating these struggles becomes less difficult. Simply recalling the memories of people who have died and made an impact on one’s life can relieve traumatizing experiences. Tim O’Brien recalls his first encounter concerning death which involved his first love, Linda, and while pondering this, he explains that “as a writer now, I want to save Linda’s life.
In Jane Brody’s alarming article, “War Wounds That Time Alone Can’t Heal” Brody describes the intense and devastating pain some soldiers go through on a daily basis. These soldiers come home from a tragic time during war or, have vivid memories of unimaginable sufferings they began to experience in the battle field. As a result these soldiers suffer from, “emotional agony and self-destructive aftermath of moral injury…” (Brody). Moral injury has caused much emotional and physical pain for men and women from the war.
The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.