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Soldier From The War Returning By Thomas Childers Summary

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In Soldier from the War Returning, Thomas Childers writes that “a curious silence lingers over what for many was the last great battle of the war.” This final battle was the soldier’s return home. After World War II, veterans came back to the United States and struggled with stigmatized mental illnesses as well as financial and social issues. During the war, many soldiers struggled with mental health issues that persisted after they came home. While fighting in combat, soldiers often developed a fatalist attitude towards their lives allowing them to accept their death as fate; this attitude led to a sense of detachment that was tough to kick even when they returned to safer environments. A quarter of soldiers were diagnosed with neuro-psychiatric …show more content…

During the Battle of the Bulge, soldiers fought in “grueling physical and psychological conditions” that led to persistent struggles after the war with remembering these conditions (Intro: Battle of the Bulge). Many veterans refer to the immediate effects of returning as the “shock of peace” (Childers). However, despite these widespread mental health problems, there were few psychiatrists to treat these soldiers as well as a “cultural ethos” that discouraged discussing emotions, especially among men (Childers). When soldiers returned home, they often had difficulty with finances. Many came home to find that they were replaced in their old occupations and that, in general, jobs were in short supply. As a result, unemployment among veterans was triple that of civilians in 1947. Moreover, housing was hard to find leaving many veterans without a stable home. Furthermore, while there was a baby boom after the war, there was also a divorce boom. Marital relations suffered after the war as veterans silently struggled with their mental health. The period after the war was the highest divorce rate in the world at the time and the highest divorce rate in American history. Furthermore, soldiers had been

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