Tim O.Briens, the Things They Carried Critical Essay

Dan Gaumer Gaumer 1 Prof Montgomery English 104 10/22/12 nasty Times of Norman Bowker Have you ever found yourself carrying something heavy for a long period of time? Do you remember feeling pain, or wanting(p) to drop the object because it was too much to bear? Tim Obriens novel, The Things They Carried, is almost men in the middle of the Vietnam War just trying to survive. These men, comparable all soldiers, carried many things ranging from the physical items of struggle to the emotional and mental weight that comes along with the horrors of war. They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible military unit of the things they carried. (Obrien,7) I believe in this novel, Obrien gives many great and detailed usages of PTSD, even in his have got life. This novel is more than just about the Vietnam War. It is about what a solider goes through on and off the battlefield. Its about the art of a real war story. Most importantly its about wha t soldiers carried, physically, mentally, and emotionally during, before, and after the war.The soldiers that made it tolerate home base suffered from many mental issues, mainly Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition thats triggered by a terrifying event. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event. Many people who go through traumatic events have difficulty adjusting and coping for a while. But with time and taking care of yourself, Gaumer 2 such traumatic reactions usually lend better.In some cases, though, the symptoms can get worse or last for months or even years. (Staff, Mayo Clinic,Definition) Thoughts of sorrow and loss overwhelm the Vietnam veterans upon their return back home. Crushed from the horror of war, they come back to even bigger disappointments and sadness. kinda of the mellow lives they lead before they leftover for war an d the presence of warm and care everyday life, most of them encounter empty beds, cold family ambiance and overall loss.Already physically and emotionally defeated, they cant seem to pick up their lives where they left off. Even in instances of supportive partners, the inevitable horrors of the war haunt them in sleep or come back to them in daydreaming. They all came back with doubled disorders, PTSD with the common symptoms. The war was over and there was no place in particular to go (131). Various examples of this disorder are found in a few chapters such as talk of the town of Courage and The Man I Killed. For Vietnam veterans, nothing could replenish the zest for life they had before the war.According to OBriens text, upon their arrival home the veterans imagine, even hallucinate, what things would have been like if they had not suffered through the war. Examples of such occurrences exist in the stories Speaking of Courage and The Man I Killed. Norman Bowker in Speaking o f Courage daydreams of talking to his ex-girlfriend, without delay married to another guy, and of his dead childhood friend, Max Arnold. He lives out over and over his unfulfilled dream of having his cranny beside him and of having manly conversations with Max.He cannot stop day dreaming and dwelling in the foregone. Gaumer 3 Unemployed and overwhelmed by inferiority and disappointment, Bowker lacks a motivating force for life. Emotionally stricken, he only finds satisfaction in driving slowly and repeatedly in circles around his old neighborhood in his fathers big Chevy, feeling safe, and remembering how things utilise to be when there wasnt a war. These recurring events also spring memories of the beautiful lake where Norman used to spend a lot of time with his now married ex-girlfriend Sally Kramer and his high school friends.The lake invokes nostalgic and sentimental memories both of his girlfriend and his long gone drowned best friend, Max Arnold. However, now for Norman the past seems an idea, or like Max would say, that everything exists as a possible idea, even necessary as an idea, a final cause in the whole body structure of causation (133). Thus, his ex girlfriend, his friends, the lake, the gatherings, his father and all the rest exist as ideas in Normans level now that all of his past exists only as flutter thoughts in a big jumbled chaos in his head.All of this has symptoms of PDST all over it. He only possesses the solitary capability of bragging about the medals he won or he should have won. Even that does not bring him comfort since he imagines talking to Sally Hows it being married? he competency ask, and hed nod at whatever she answered with, and he would not say a word about how hed almost won the Silver Star for valor (134). vigour fulfills Norman Bowker anymore. Instead, a terrible confusion has taken over his mind in the form of blur and chaos. He desperately needs someone to talk to If Sally had not beenGaumer 4 married, or if his father were not such a baseball fan, it would have been a good time to talk (134). Unfortunately, he keeps questioning and answering himself in order to justify and compensate the loss and to make some sort of sense out of the entire situation. He loans to travel Sally with some dumb tricks of telling the exact time without even looking at a watch, just as much as he wishes for a father-son conversation. So that he can make his father proud, if nothing else, that his son won seven medals during the war.He does not have anybody to comfort him in moments of self-blame, for example when he cannot forgive himself for not winning the Silver Star because he couldnt take the goddamn awful smell (136). He evokes the shit experience from his war days. He goes on to comfort himself, by pretending what considerate thoughts his father might have If you dont want to say anymore -, to which immediately Norman answers himself I do want to(136). He tries to maintain calm and balance-minded while thinking of being camped in the shit field.He cannot stop thinking of the cruel war incidents that he witnessed, and therefore, he cannot forget the death of his friend Kiowa, who died in an explosion in the shit field There was a knee. There was an arm There were bubbles where Kiowas head shouldve been He was folded in with the war he was part of the waste (142,143, 147). Not only can Norman not stop thinking about the cruelties, just he also cannot forgive himself for letting go of Kiowa because he blames himself for not being able to save his Gaumer 5 friends life, of which as a consequence Norman did not win the Silver Star.It seems like Norman carries the shit experience with him for life. Other characteristics of PTSD in this story are Normans inhibited social skills. Instead of placing a fast-food order through the drive-through intercom he honks at the waitress and once he gets his order, he does not move away until after he eats his hamburger and then presses the int ercom again to inform the waiters that he finished his hamburger. From this novel Ive come to figure out the realism of the unbowed things soldiers carry during and after the war.There is the weight of the physical items, than there are the weight of the mental issues that come along with fighting in war. Issues like PTSD, which the story of Norman Bowker gives various good examples of. And the proving the very real pain that goes along with it by him eventually committing suicide. In my opinion, in this novel, Obrien gives many examples of PTSD, even in his own life. The results of the trauma suffered in the war together with the emotional baggage grief, terror, love, and longing, proves how PTSD can affect a soldier.