Story Telling In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

“For thos who understand need no explanation, for those who don’t no explanationa is possible” This quote in Bill Edmonds’ talk based on his book “Torture, Trauma, Moral Injuries of War” was intriguing to me because to me, it clearly depicted the effect that war has. Unless you experience war, it is impossible to understand the how injurious and traumatic war is. In his talk he shared a personal story as a special operation. He discusses the horrible evil of war morality that hauns him till this day. The evils of the war eventually consumed him and haunted him. Edmonds also mentions that “moral injuries” which is when you partake in something that is against your moral belief that brings you guilt. What was interesting after he defined “moral

People often view these feelings as “illegitimate or not real”, which is unreasonable, I also think it is clearly a reason why victims have a difficult time coping with such struggles. However, a helpful way to cope with the moral injuries or trauma is through storytelling. I think that story telling is a great way for victims to express their feelings rather than ignoring it. The importance of storytelling is also seen in a book I read by Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. In his book, in a collection of short stories, he uses storytelling as an approach to cope with the trauma after the atrocities of the Vietnam war. It is an interesting point that Edmonds specifies in his talk, the ability to use storytelling as means to embracing injure and take control on how you cope with moral injuries and trauma. What I also think is important that we recognize is the affect that war has on not just combatants but civilians as well. When we study International Politics we tend to focus less on the emotions and more on the structure of politics. However, it is important to also study how war has affected rape victimes in the Democratic Republic of