War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

War has a profound and lasting impact on individuals and society. In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he tells different stories of before, during and after war and how it affects the soldiers, mentally and physically. In these stories Tim O’Brien illustrates these traumas and the long-lasting effects and impact that the war will always have on these men. Even though all the men didn’t survive the ones that did continue to have traumatic flashbacks. War has a lasting impact on individuals and society, affecting not only the physical but the mental and emotional well-being of those involved. The impending war affects the mental and emotional states of soldiers as they become uncertain of what their future holds for them. Before the

As they return home from war, most of these soldiers don’t know what to do with their life anymore. Most soldiers don’t even remember how to have a normal conversation without bringing the war up. “He wished he could’ve explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but how he had not been brave as he wanted to be”(153). Most of the men want to have conversations or tell stories but they can’t figure out how to explain different things to people. Some people also just don’t understand that how much the war has effected the soldiers. Between random flashbacks and stories they can’t tell since they get so mixed up makes it hard for them. When O’Brien is in the field he thinks about Kiowa,“He pulled hard but Kiowa was gone, and then suddenly he felt himself going, too. He could taste it. The shit was in his nose and eyes. There were flares and mortar rounds, and the stink was everywhere- it was inside him, in his lungs- and he could no longer tolerate it”(149). Since the war the soldiers get flashbacks of different scenarios all the time. It takes a toll on how they think and the trauma, guilt, and grief they felt in that