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PTSD In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) develops from a traumatic experience months or even years after the event itself, causing many hard-to-identify symptoms. As our knowledge of PTSD has expanded, we have learned that it can be induced from any traumatizing experience a person might encounter, however many cases of PTSD are discovered in people after returning home from war. Due to the psychological nature of this condition and the absolute lack of physical anomalies associated with it, there has been a shortage of adequate healing procedures in place for PTSD over the years. In spite of this, some veterans have found outlets to cope, for better or worse, with their newfound psychological abnormalities. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried …show more content…

Vonnegut’s struggle with PTSD was more typical than that of O’Brien, for he had difficulty separating past and present. Relating to O’Brien’s intentional plot structure, Vonnegut creates a deliberate disarray. Instead of retelling previous events in order to convey his emotions like O’Brien, Vonnegut designedly creates an impression of chaos among his pages. Many of the chapters are full of experiences that could not have occurred, rather than reiterations of things that could have occurred. Vonnegut spends many pages on Tralfamadorians who are “two feet high, and green, and shaped like plumber's friends. Their suction cups were on the ground, and their shafts, which were extremely flexible, usually pointed to the sky. At the top of each shaft was a little hand with a green eye in its palm. The creatures were friendly, and they could see in four dimensions” (Vonnegut 26). The plot is meant to be difficult to understand, and, in conjunction with constant time jumps, it is difficult to follow the plot as well. This is a hyperbolic example of PTSD, as no one suffering from PTSD actually travels to the past, but the onslaught of confusion Vonnegut’s protagonist Billy Pilgrim experiences is meant to highlight the extremities of Vonnegut’s struggles with PTSD. Although O’Brien and Vonnegut’s overall plots share similar structure, there is a stark contrast between their chapter structures. In conjunction with “reliving the event” (USDVA), it is advised that people who suffer from PTSD “avoid situations that remind you of an event” (USDVA) because they may trigger severe symptoms. Instead of a collection of short stories, Vonnegut created one endless loop for Billy Pilgrim to travel through indefinitely. The book is written as though between chapters Billy is transported through time, rather

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Soldiers who have experienced war suffer long-lasting psychological wounds in addition to physical wounds. The psychological effects of these wounds have a lasting impact on veterans' lives. In "The Things They Carried," a book by Tim O'Brien, the protagonist struggles with the psychological fallout from killing a man, a burden he bears long after the war is over. Veterans frequently have a difficult time finding work after returning from combat. Many of them have various wounds and traumas from their time in the military, which can make it difficult for them to lead regular lives.

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Title: Slaughterhouse-Five Author: Kurt Vonnegut Thesis: Throughout KVs SF, he describes in matter of fact way the psychological impact/effects of the devastation of war and death upon Billy Pilgrim and how he handles it. Through the exploration of Billy Pilgrim’s detached and indifferent thoughts, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five illustrates the coping mechanisms of a World War II veteran with post traumatic stress disorder.

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Some experiences, like the sudden unexpected death of a loved one, can also cause PTSD” (National Institute of Mental Health, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”). PTSD, like many other diseases, can arise from a number of conditions, making it hard to pinpoint where it stems from. Vonnegut takes into account that PTSD can come from a number of sources, providing a plethora of possible explanations for Billy’s mental capacity throughout the novel. For instance, early in Billy’s life, Billy, along

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Billy is unreliable in the sense that we cannot take his word as a scientific truth or his adventures as an accurate account of what happened. In spite of this, he is not a liar. His role requires him to give a blurred, occasionally embellished picture of Vonnegut’s war experience, from which the audience has to extrapolate the reality. The author’s interventions, moreover, do not stop after the first chapter. He has two primary ways of maintaining his contact with the audience: by inserting some references into Billy’s narrative or by breaking through Billy’s

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In contrast, O’Brien’s novel is written chronologically, and the use of fantasy flows throughout the book. Each scene follows the characters throughout their time in Vietnam, as O’Brien recounts stories from his service there. While the fantastical events that occur in The Things They Carried are clearly more believable than in Slaughterhouse-Five, O’Brien points out that in fact, many parts of the novel are fictitious. O’Brien writes “It’s time to be blunt. I’m forty-three years old, true, and I’m a writer now, and a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier.

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The tribulation the soldiers have to endure with all the violence in O'Brien's novel brings a tremendous slap of psychological trauma in their lives. This psychological trauma has been

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The postmodernist writing of Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse 5 abandons traditional storytelling by presenting the life of Billy Pilgrim in a non chronological order. This creates a reflection of Pilgrim’s erratic reality, avoiding a typical plot line. Classically war stories showcase a hero; a hero who will battle against the odds and win. Yet Vonnegut’s character (Billy Pilgrim) does not act or have motivation beyond basic survival, often portrayed as a victim of destiny. By possessing traits that contrast with those of a traditional hero Billy Pilgrim becomes a classic example of an anti-hero.

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He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.

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PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is a condition that commonly appears in people who have experienced a traumatic disaster or event. The event can vary between many things such as war, abuse, assault or another traumatizing event. The disorder can arise from either witnessing the tragic event or experiencing the tragic event. In this case specifically the story The Things they carried by Tim O’Brien shows the PTSD that soldiers from the vietnam war are experiencing. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien presents PTSD through both the context of the story as well as the form of the text.

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in The Things They Carried During the turbulent times of the Vietnam War, thousands of young men entered the warzone and came face-to-face with unimaginable scenes of death, destruction, and turmoil. While some perished in the dense Asian jungles, others returned to American soil and were forced to confront their lingering combat trauma. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried provides distinct instances of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and reveals the psychological trauma felt by soldiers in the Vietnam War. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD for short, is the most common mental illness affecting soldiers both on and off the battlefield.

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