Summary Of The Story 'Notes By Tim O' Brien

In Tim O’Brien’s story “Notes,” he discusses his fellow soldier “Norman Bowker […] [who hung] himself in the locker room of the YMCA” (149). Bowker symbolizes the pain that many veterans experienced, and how they sadly found their only escape through suicide. Yet, veterans potentially could have survived and even thrived if they had access to resources such as therapy, psychiatrists, and psychologists. When organizations supporting the idea that veterans should have opportunity to obtain these assets proposed this concept to The House Committee members, “members repeatedly balked at the notion that Vietnam Veterans required special counseling programs to help readjust” (Scott 38). Additionally, Patrick Hagopian reflects on how the government opposed the idea of providing these necessary resources so much that “the Nixon administration identified the politically engaged psychiatrists as enemies” (55). The negative connotation

During the War, “U.S. planes sprayed some 11 million to 13 million gallons of Agent Orange,” a chemical used to destroy forests in Vietnam (“Agent Orange”). At the time, the side effects of the toxin remained unknown, yet veterans questioned and suspected it caused a series of physical and mental illnesses. Air force veteran, Charlie Owens “attributed his cancer to the Agent Orange sprayed by his unit in Vietnam. When Owens died ‘His wife relayed these concerns to the VA…[who] rejected the notion that Owen’s cancer was related to herbicide use” (Scott 87). Owens was one of the many victims of Agent Orange who went to government-sponsored hospitals claiming that the chemical caused their illness but hospitals often turned them down and did not accept that Agent Orange impacted soldiers. The limited research about the toxin and the absence of care given to patients who claimed Agent Orange affected them restricted veterans from a smooth re-entry into