Estimated over 30% of Vietnam Veterans suffer from PTSD. Many suffer from a vast variety of mental health issues. A majority of Veterans feel that they cannot ever explain the negative experiences they suffered in war and the consequences of those. There is a fear of embarrassment and being perceived as weak. In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien, the author, conveys that Vietnam Veterans conceal their bad experiences with war; if these are revealed to others, no one knows how to respond. The chapter “Speaking of Courage” focuses on the toil of Norman Bowker when he returns home after the war. O’Brien uses hypothetical conversations to reveal how Norman feels others would react if he revealed his sheltered war experiences. Norman …show more content…
‘How’d you like to hear about the war?’ he might have asked, but the place could only blink and shrug” (137). Norman has this urge to talk to others about his war experiences, but he conceals all of them for what he thinks is for the best. When O’Brien says “the place could only blink and shrug” he is suggesting how others would react who cannot relate to war. O’Brien is conveying how people become dumbfounded by the received information. Norman’s thoughts really stress the idea of why so many Veterans keep all their thoughts concealed with the projected outcome. Veterans only want to communicate if people would clearly listen. Additionally, through dialogue, O’Brien exhibits Bowker’s self-conflict to express his experiences in war and stay sheltered. Norman arrives in the drive-up at Mama Burgers post-war and presses the intercom button to talk to the worker: “‘Well,’ he said, ‘how’d you like to hear about —’ He stopped and shook his head. ‘Hear what, man?’ ‘Nothing’”(146). O’Brien illustrating Norman’s urge to personally talk to a drive-through worker reveals the strong sense Veterans feel to communicate with anyone. Norman knows he should express his feelings but when he is …show more content…
O’Brien uses symbolism through Linda to emphasize that when Veterans communicate their thoughts to others they do not know how to respond. O’Brien flashes back to age 9 when Nick Veenhof passes Linda’s desk and takes her hat off. The visible roughness of Linda’s head shocks the class: “I remember a short, tinny echo. I remember Nick Veenhof trying to smile. Somewhere behind me, a girl said, ‘Uh,’ or a sound like that”(222). O’Brien symbolizes Linda’s cancer and the ugliness of her head as the ugliness that goes through a Veteran’s mind. Linda always covers the ugliness of her head with the red hat; similarly, Veterans hide their trauma and bad experiences from others by not communicating with anyone else about it. In this situation when Linda’s head is revealed it is seen the whole class is silent and has no idea how to respond. All that can be said is “Uh”. Furthermore, O’Brien uses the symbolism of cancer again to produce the idea that Veterans will never be able to mentally improve unless they communicate. Tim has problems accepting Linda’s death and his mom tries to explain cancer to him. His mother consoles him, “Now and then, she said, bad things start growing inside us. Sometimes you can cut them out and other times you can’t”(224). O’Brien symbolizes cancer as the trauma a Veteran carries. War gives Veterans so many horrible experiences, guilt, and trauma that grows and is
As he drove around his hometown, he thought about life during the war and his present relations with his father and an old girlfriend. Norman pictured a conversation he might have with his old (now married) girlfriend Sally. ‘“He'd keep it light. He wouldn't say anything about anything. "How's it being married?" he might ask, and he'd nod at whatever she answered with, and he would not say a word about how he'd almost won the Silver Star for valor.
Norman’s story is a way to help Tim portray the feeling that many veterans experienced when arriving home. Constantly, Norman reminisces of his mistake he feels he has made “the truth… is I let the guy go” (147).A feeling of emptiness, loss of motivation, regretfullness makes readjustment take a toll on a soldier’s mental health. Readers are able to grasp this feeling as if Norman’s chapter contains the whole truth, however, the mention of specific details allow for also seeing the addition behind
In Speaking of Courage, it focuses on Norman Bowker, a Vietnam war veteran who feels alienated and isolated from his hometown after the war. In the quote "'How'd you like to hear about the war?' he might have asked, but the place could only blink and shrug."(143) It shows how Norman can not fit in with the people in his hometown anymore, as his interests are vastly different from the civilians in the town. This means there aren't any good topics that he shares in common with anymore else as the only people who understand him are his fellow soldiers from Vietnam.
The soldiers of the Vietnam War were mostly innocent young men that were forced to face overwhelming emotional distress like the fear of their own deaths, guilt associated with taking the life of another soldier, and sorrow after witnessing their fellow comrades’ deaths. In The Things They Carried, author, Tim O’Brien, uses fictional stories to display the immense emotional burdens that the soldier Tim and his fellow members of Alpha Company experienced before, during, and after their unforgettably haunting time in Vietnam, and how each handled this “baggage” they carried. O’Brien’s sympathy belongs to the soldiers in the novel, knowing full and well that none of them belonged in the middle of the unjust war. Whether it was by the use of
Speaking of Life After War Veterans go through very traumatic events during war and for many, these events change their lives and perspectives. In the chapter “Speaking of Courage” from his novel The Things They Carried, author Tim O’Brien uses the third person point of view and the imagery of the cycle of the road around the lake to strengthen the impact and separation that veterans feel from regular life in the United States, letting the reader recognize the life-changing trauma that results from war and how it impacted many veterans, especially during the Vietnam war like the setting of most of the novel. Trauma can result from the death of a friend, dangerous and scary events, oppression, and more. Throughout the chapter, Tim O’Brien uses
Shamus Colson Ms. Robinson Junior Humanities English 13 June 2023 Vietnam and the trauma carried by a soldier from a war fought in vane Throughout Tim O'brien's book The Things They Carried we are introduced to several young men who had been deployed to the Vietnam countryside to fight a war where there was no clear good guy or bad guy and no real objective other than to kill the spread of Communism. Unfortunately rather than addressing the horrible things these young men saw and experienced our government and some of our people shunned away these young men and the trauma they carry from a war fought in vane, where instead of valuing the lives and emotional well-being of America's sons, our government valued money and capitalism. The young man that arguably carries the most trauma throughout the book is Norman Bowker.
“There was nothing to say. He could not talk about it and never would” (O’Brien 147). O’Brien shows the pain and trauma that Norman felt whilst he could not seem to tell anyone though he yearned to (Speaking of Courage, Notes). This gives basis to his isolated soldier role which O’Brien uses to highlight the surviving guilt for Norman’s regret of cowardice. In the chapter "Notes," O'Brien's method of reaction retelling gives a basis on how O'Brien revised the scene in "Speaking of Courage" to be more meaningful with greater detail and focus on Kiowa’s demise and Norman’s stagnation on the scene.
However the trauma is not escapable for the soldiers of war. The sudden death Kiowa causes Norman Bowker so much emotional pain, he unfortunately ends his life. Norman feels overwhelmed with guilt due to what happened in war, “Norman Bowker, who three years later hanged himself… That night when Kiowa got wasted, I sort of sank down into the sewage with him… The letter covered seventeen pages, its tone jumping from self-pity to angry to irony to guilt” (149-150). O’Brien uses the idea of the tone jumping to show how Norman felt all different emotions and did not know where to place the blame.
(O’Brien 107). The quote was significant at the time that Tim O'Brian was attempting to talk to Norman Bowker about his guilt over the death of Kiowa and to stop him from believing that he needed to continue telling war stories after the war. The letter O'Brien received from Bowker vividly depicts his struggles with depression and traumatic events. This demonstrates how the author is attempting to deal with the traumatic events from his time serving in the Vietnam War. Because this was the first war that America lost and because it can be used to illustrate how people suffered, it demonstrates how difficult it is for soldiers to talk about their experiences.
He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.
Norman had felt as if he had no one to talk to or relate to because no one around him had experienced war like he had. He tried to keep jobs when he was home from war, but not one of them had lasted more than 3 weeks. Since he feels he is unable to speak to anyone about war, he writes a letter to O’Brien, telling his entire war story. He soon feels as if he cannot do anything without thinking about war and hangs himself in the locker room of his town’s YMCA.
Dangerous and intense situations typically lead to certain devastating consequences to a persons both emotional and physical health. As result of these experiences, there is often not only exterior injuries, but also the non visual psychological damage that is just as hard, if not harder, to resolve. One commonality throughout all wars is this unseen casualty known as PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder. Tim O’Brien, veteran of the Vietnam war, demonstrates how PTSD affects soldiers in countless ways in his novel The Things They Carried. He uses fictional but lovable characters that readers can easily relate to, intensifying their emotional engagement in the book.
In the story, there are many different behaviors that make it clear to the reader that Norman is unable to get past the war and the trauma surrounding it. These behaviors include continuing to drive around a lake being stuck in a specific path, making up conversations he might have with his dad about the war, and convincing himself that normal occurrences must be effects of the war. One day while Norman is driving, he passes through a town. He describes it as, “A tour bus feeling, in a way, except the town he was touring seemed dead. Through the windows, as if in a stop-motion photograph, the place looked as if it had been hit by nerve gas, everything still and lifeless, even the people” (143).
This quote epitomizes the trauma caused by war. O’Brien is trying to cope, mostly through writing these war stories but has yet to put it behind him. He feels guilt, grief, and responsibility, even making up possible scenarios about the life of the man he killed and the type of person he was. This
Already he had passed them six times, forty-two miles, nearly three hours without stopping” (O’Brien 139-140). As if Norman was stuck in a loop, he drove around that lake, reliving moments of his life from when he was in Vietnam. He questioned, doubted, and second guessed things that had happened. He wants to tell his story to his friends but they all moved on with their lives while he was in Vietnam in the war, leaving him with no one. He wanted to talk to someone but he couldn’t.