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PTSD In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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Noah Cohen Reid Period 3 English 11 May 9th, 2023 The Effects of PTSD on Vietnam Veterans Depicted in The Things They Carried The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a substantial perspective-shifting book about a man recalling the conflict of the Vietnam War, speaking to the reader and describing the horrors of the Vietcong conflicts with gruesome and personal detailing. The main character seems to be O’Brien himself, and his platoon buddies in ‘Alpha Company’. It’s because of these horrific events that occurred that have left the men of this story with inexplicable trauma, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Nowadays PTSD is a widely recognized mental illness and is widely accepted, but back in the 70s, this was very less so. Harsher still was the way these scarred men were treated by the civilian masses when they returned home, causing them to react in different ways. The first case of an outlash is that of Rat Kiley. Kiley is a very outgoing …show more content…

The loss, the fear and the uncertainty that war brings is never truly gone from these men, and these men will remember it. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is a disorder that you cannot pin down as something simple, yet something fearful and lurking within the minds of those long after the war is over. It envelops the lives of its victims, leaving them constantly reliving the fear they felt so long ago. In some cases, the victim believes that they themselves are the monster, feeling the guilt and hatred within themselves and they feel the need to hurt themselves as punishment. For some men, PTSD is a giant wall, one that separates the scarred, quiet man from those who can comfort him the most, holding back his stories for fear of being mocked or misunderstood. And for some, PTSD is a constant threat, surrounding the mouse of a man who just wants to go home, constantly backed into a corner by invisible threats, a caged, misunderstood

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