Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

In 1955, the United States declared war on Vietnam with the goal of defeating the communist rebel force that was becoming exceedingly prevalent. Approximately ten years after the war began, the federal government decided to issue a draft to send able-bodied men overseas to serve in the military and support their country. Besides the draft, there were many other reasons for Americans to go to Vietnam during this time period, such as travelling overseas for photographing and broadcasting daily events, helping distribute supplies, or simply visiting the soldiers who fought tirelessly in Vietnam. When the war concluded, Americans returned to their homes, but they all drastically transformed from their personas before the war. The Things They

Tim O’Brien, a soldier who is hardened by the events of the war, arrives home with immense guilt and new, conflicting emotions that he must learn to control. His fellow soldier Norman Bowker returns from the war, unable to cope with the war mentally as well as emotionally. Vietnam also drastically alters the personality of Mary Anne Bell, an American civilian visiting Vietnam, into someone unrecognizable to those who knew her before she had traveled to Vietnam. The transformative psychological effects of the war on Americans in Vietnam are illustrated through the characterizations of Tim O’Brien, Norman Bowker, and Mary Anne Bell in The Things They Carried. Tim O’Brien transforms after the war, and he becomes mentally burdened by guilt, as well as exceedingly emotionally challenged. He begins to develop guilt from responsibility for others’ deaths and also the weight of having survived while other people did not. Following the end of the war, he must endure his feelings of intense shame because of the deaths of his comrades and enemies: “But this Tim’s transgression also

Years afterwards, he still feels detached and numb, so he must write to attempt to reconnect himself: “[O’Brien’s] moments of introspection also become emotional releases, opportunities to cut through the numbness that the war has created in him so he can feel again” (Herzog 115). He uses his writing as a form of therapy to manage his emotions of stress and intense guilt in an effort to thrive despite his traumatic recollections. Moreover, he fears facing the emotional weight of killing people and leaving his comrades to fend for themselves in the past, but O’Brien also does not want to become emotionless and indifferent to hurting others (Herzog 118). He still cannot place all of his emotions and memories in order; he says of himself: “Even now I haven’t finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don’t. In the ordinary hours of my life I try not to dwell on it” (O’Brien 128). Tim O’Brien struggles to handle his memories after the fighting, not by obsessing over his remembrances but by acknowledging them and attempting to thrive despite his challenging past. Many years after the war has passed, the festering presence of his inward guilt has grown, and he attempts to give himself closure by making sense of the loss of his friends and the lives he