The Thing's They Carried By Tim O Brien

Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Thing’s They Carried, reveals the author elaborating on his experiences of the Vietnam War through various war stories. While elaborating on his own personal experience from the war, he is also able to delve a little into how the war affects the country. “War has a catastrophic effect on the health and well being of nations. Studies have shown that conflict situations cause more mortality and disability than any major disease” (Lakshiminarayana and Murthy). Through this description of war, it is obvious that war goes far passed physical trauma and hints on the emotional and psychological effects of war. O’Brien explains the psychological and emotional burdens that the soldiers carry and how those burdens far outweigh

Their fear was able to manifest from a variety of different sources. The men were constantly haunted by the fear of dying .Ted Lavender’s death and how the men reaction following it shows the impact on the soldiers. Kiowa displays a true understanding of that of the threat of death has on himself and his fellow soldiers when he describes the characteristics of Lavender’s death, “Like cement, Kiowa whispered in the dark. I swear to God – boom, down. Not a word” (O’Brien 16). Lavender’s death is described as being like a substance of massive mass, extremely heavy, like cement. Lavender’s death is repeated several times throughout the story. It is obvious that this repetition is a symbol of the fear in the remaining soldiers. This symbolism alone shows a classical example of what we call posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. “Witnessing the intense trauma of death on a daily basis was more than enough to produce PTSD” (Ford). This fear of what their future fate may be serves as a piece of the psychological baggage that the soldiers must carry with them everywhere that they go in their minds. In a different contradicting twist, the men had a fear of blushing. “Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to” (O’Brien 20). The mental concern for their reputation’s as men proved to be extreme burden on the soldiers. They feared being deemed a coward or dying in any sort

Lieutenant Cross shows a prime example of a soldier mentally strained by the sense of responsibility. He feels responsible for his troop because he is the leader. In consequence to having Martha clouding his mind during the time of Lavender’s death, he suffers from guilt and feeling responsible for his death. In order to fix what appears to be a distraction in Cross’s mind, he burns all of his letters and photographs of Martha and proclaimed he hated her with love. “He realized it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental, too, but mostly stupid” (O’Brien 22). He did this to sort of burn away all the guilt he had but realized that this would not work. “Lavender was dead. You couldn’t burn the blame” (O’Brien 22). At that point, Cross must carry the responsibility of all his men, still living as well as carry the guilt of being unable to keep Lavender alive. This proves to be one of the heaviest loads he had to