The Things They Carried' Essay on PTSD

According to research conducted by Charles R. Hooper, former Navy Seal, and graduate of the University of North Carolina, approximately 20 war Veterans commit suicide every day. The main causes of suicide in Veterans include mental illnesses related to PTSD or trauma from wars such as the Vietnam War or World War II. Kurt Vonnegut, a popular 20th-century author of the bestselling novel Slaughterhouse-five, expresses his philosophical thinking by exploring the mind of a World War II veteran named Billy Pilgrim, who struggles deeply to find his place in society while battling severe insanity in his mind. The Things, They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, is a complicated, yet fascinating novel that explores the mind of his self fighting in the Vietnam War, and the post-war experiences he suffered during his time as a retired veteran. Isolationism and Escapism are both common themes the two main characters share in their journeys through struggles coping with their new lives after traumatic experiences. Pilgrim and O’Brien both struggle to find their place in society and are forced to suffer through traumatic experiences such as time-traveling, insanity, flashbacks, and the theme of reality and illusions. In Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Tim O’Brien's novel, The Things They Carried, trauma and isolation have long-lasting effects on Veterans’ brain functions as well as their identity and ability to cope with the effects of mental illnesses such as Post post-traumatic stress Disorder (PTSD).

Returning from War can be as detrimental to one's mental and physical health as being back on the battlefield. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Pilgrim believes that there is, “nothing intelligent to say about a massacre” (Vonnegut 19). Pilgrim, an Army soldier in World War II, developed his insanity and mental illnesses from the traumatic experience of the Bombing of Dresden. Although he was not directly physically injured during the battle, he expressed his struggles mentally from seeing many of his closest friends die on February 13th, 1945. The lack of side characters in the novel only further expresses his isolated personality, feeling that this is a normal part of being a veteran of WWII. He struggles to cope with this horrific day and allows his flashbacks to prevent him from integrating back into society and living a normal life. In The Things They Carried, O’Brien expressed, “Men killed, and died because they were embarrassed not to” (O’Brien 77). The brave men who fought in WWII alongside the Allied Powers joined the fight against Hitler and the Axis Powers because they believed that it was their duty. Patriotism grew to an all-time high after the attack on Pearl Harbor because they felt that the United States of America’s qualities such as freedom and liberty were at risk of being taken away. The theme of death and destruction in the novel is heavily normalized because Veterans almost expect to die fighting for their country. In some ways, they believe that dying at war is truly the greatest honor for a country, and surviving only causes longer-term issues such as mental illnesses. Many mental illness examples include Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, and Mental Insanity. Brave war veterans are affected more at home after the war regarding mental health rather than being on the battlefield and suffering physically. The results of trauma directly affect the well-being of veterans, causing serious mental struggles that eventually can have such a detrimental toll on their lives that they feel the only way to escape the constant pain is through suicide.

Certain aspects and moments in combat will lead to isolation in veterans, making them think no one understands what they saw during their time on the battlefield. Slaughterhouse-Five has an especially important theme of Isolationism. Pilgrim states, “All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist.” (Vonnegut Chapter 2). Pilgrim is expressing how it is not possible to go back in time and fix your mistakes. The isolation theme takes a toll on not only the Veteran’s life but their surrounding family as well. This part of the story focuses on how Death is an almost meaningless symbol. Death is so frequent to Billy during the war that he starts to accept it into his life. Every death mentioned in the novel is pointless in the fact that it's just another death in the war which makes it insignificant. After he returns home, the absence of death in everyday life affects his mental health, almost as if there is an absence in his life now that he does not have to live in constant fear overseas. The Things They Carried has similar aspects to those of Slaughterhouse-Five. According to D. Quentin Miller McMechan, he believes Vietnam Veterans suffered the greatest from mental illnesses because of the lack of meaning behind the war. Veterans believed they fought a war they should not be involved in, and without a clear winner, thousands of soldiers died for the greater good of “nothing”. He stated, “Truth and reality are even fuzzier in Vietnam than elsewhere, and examining how experience is converted into meaning matters more than trying to figure out what is real. Despite the narrator's playing with the notion of truth in stories, the reader comes away from these stories with a sense of the awful truth that was Vietnam, though we share the frustrations of the various storytellers, who will never quite be able to communicate their experience” (Miller). Veterans struggling after the war usually have an exceedingly tough time opening up about their emotions and experiences because they feel no one will understand what they have seen and gone through. Because of this, they usually hold in all of their thoughts and resent suicide once the pain inside takes over their brain. O’Brien stated, “Mary Anne made you think about all those girls back home, how clean and innocent they are, how they’ll never understand any of this, not in a billion years. Try to tell them about it, they’ll just stare at you with those big round candy eyes. They won’t understand Zip. It’s like trying to tell someone what chocolate tastes like,” (O’Brien 113). Isolationism is a huge part of a veteran’s life, and most of the common signs are not visible to an outsider because of their terrible mental insanity.

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A veteran's identity can be fully changed before and after combat, leading to unusual behavior and unpredictable actions. First, the chronological order of this book is very confusing, symbolizing the effects of PTSD on the mind, and showing how jumbled and inconsistent veteran thoughts are. For example, in Slaughterhouse-Five, Pilgrim goes through these episodes where he believes that he is time traveling through space and his life. In these episodes, he is abducted by aliens called Tralfamadorians. Vonnegut states, “If what Billy Pilgrim learned from the Tralfamadorians is true, that we will all live forever, no matter how dead we may sometimes seem to be, I am not overjoyed. Still--if I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and that, I am grateful that so many of those moments are nice” (Chapter 10). These episodes Billy suffers through are a reoccurring part of his life, but he does not understand that this is not something normal that a human being should experience. In an article written by Dianne Telgen and Kevin Hile, they discuss how the unique writing style of Vonnegut contributes to the emotional connection between the reader and Pilgrim. The point of view, style, symbolism, and structure all directly affect how the reader interprets Billy’s mental disorder. They quote, “…There is little reason to be overly concerned about death. The Tralfamadorians’ response to death is, 'So it goes,' and Vonnegut repeats this phrase at every point in the novel where someone, or something, dies. Billy Pilgrim, in his travels through time, 'has seen his death many times' and is unconcerned because he knows he will always exist in the past” (Telgen and Hile). Repetition is also a common grammatical clause used in the novel, emphasizing the importance of how life moves on; however, people’s identities change. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien’s unique behavior throughout the novel shows how a Veteran returning from war is never truly himself again before being sent out to combat. The combination of traumatic experiences seen overseas and different mental illnesses such as PTSD and depression is far more than enough to demonstrate how veterans’ mental health is highly looked at in society. Norman states, “He wished he could have explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but how he had not been so brave as he wanted to be. The distinction was important,” (O’Brien 153). Being brave is not only described as your willingness to do a task or project, but your courage, responsibility, and confidence mixed into your identity. The loss of human dignity is an interesting way of describing war, which was a statement that fits the point of view and plot O’Brien created in his top-selling novel. Many innocent civilians and soldiers died in the war which paints a realization of how pointless war is. Even when there is a winner in a war, many still suffer because of the losses the country as a whole faces.

Flashbacks can lead to events and actions a veteran is not bound to do, which makes Veterans feel as if they do not have control over their mind. Billy Pilgrim has many circumstances where he experiences events such as a flashback to Dresden where his entire day is flipped upside down. From the inside, he believes that it this a normal part of life to experience these events but to his outside family, this is not something that was a problem before he served in World War II. For example, Vonnegut states, “He [Billy Pilgrim] was leaning against a tree with his eyes closed. His head was tilted back, and his nostrils were flaring. He was like a poet on the Parthenon. This was when Billy first became unstuck in time” (Vonnegut 43). The phrase, “(un)stuck in time” refers to his mental blockages throughout some days where he is unable to function because of these horrific flashbacks Billy and the majority of veterans suffer with. Many Veterans try to deal with their issues by blurring out the pain in ways of alcohol substance abuse and drugs. For a brief period, their pain numbs, and they feel back the way they did before the war. However, this short-term “fix” becomes an unstoppable addiction that leads to worsening symptoms of mental illnesses. In The Things, They Carried,” O’Brien struggles with the ongoing theme of reality vs. illusions, similar to the episodes Pilgrim suffers from. Also, the novel explains how the emotional burdens carried by the soldiers after the war are worse than what they experienced at the battle. The point of view in both stories is incredibly unique. For instance, the readers get a walkthrough in both Pilgrim's and O’Brien’s minds to see the full effects of war on a human being. O’Brien remarked, “War is hell, but that is not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead” (O’Brien 85-86) Some of O’Brien and his platoon’s greatest memories were during the war, from making friendships to serving your country in a time of need. War is a mixture of things, both good and bad; however, at the end of the day, many people lose their lives for their country, symbolizing how there may be no clear winner of a war.

A winner of a War is not declared as one who wins the most battles, but one who loses the least as a unified country. Connecting this piece to prior evidence in the essay, war is sometimes necessary for the stability of the world. In WWII, the Holocaust was the mass killing of Jewish people that was directed by German leader Adolf Hitler. Although the Allies backed by the Jewish Civilians won, they ended up losing an estimated six million lives. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Pilgrim said, “. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre is things like “Poo-tee-weet” (Chapter 1). The Massacre of the Jews left millions of families shattered, and the world in pieces post-WWII. War Crimes are never justifiable, but war itself is needed to maintain authority and power through countries on planet Earth. In The Things They Carried, O’Brien vividly stated, “It’s safe to say that in a true war story, nothing is ever absolutely true” (O’Brien 82). Vietnam has many unanswered questions upheld to its name. Vietnam differed from WWII in many ways, from the objective and goal to the style of fighting. Vietnam is commonly referred to as an “unwinnable war” because of its territory and enemies. Losing thousands of American soldiers to an unwinnable is unacceptable and a blatantly embarrassing event in United States History. Unwinnable wars such as Vietnam are not worth the effects it has on society, the economy, and most importantly the soldiers who fight.

Veterans’ ability to cope with the long-lasting effects of war has a massive toll on their mental health, putting them at higher risk of developing PTSD, Depression, and other war-related illnesses. Vonnegut and O’Brien do a fascinating job directing the reader into the mind of two veterans who struggle to find their place in society while maintaining positive mental and physical health. To prevent future veterans’ suicides, understanding how war affects them rather than denying their mental pain is key to them being able to cope and talk to trusted people about the trauma they witnessed and the struggles they have endured. World War II and Vietnam both had major effects on Veterans which led to many sadly taking their lives over the stress and pain they endured. Some believe the American Dream died in the 1900s because of the damage done to future generations to come, normalizing war deaths in the hope of winning the war at the end of the day. The American Dream is liberty and freedom for all, and without Veterans, there would be no United States of America.

Works Cited

1. Hooper, Charles R. 'Suicide Among Veterans.' Edited by Sarah Hardey. American Addiction Centers, 3 Feb. 2022, American addiction centers. orgveteranssuicide-among-veterans.
2. O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
3. Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. Delacorte, 1969.
4. McMechan, Ian, updated by D. Quentin Miller. 'Tim O'Brien: Overview.' Contemporary Novelists, by Susan Windisch Brown, 6th ed., St. James Press, 1996. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.comappsdocH1420006040GLS?u=berw2747