“Gender, Violence and Trauma”

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Gender, Violence, and Trauma
In the mid-20th Century, the French, American, and the Vietnamese societies witnessed increasing post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the war. Mainly affected were the participating soldiers who were returning from the war due to the Guerilla warfare and hi-tech warfare faced by the soldiers. Coupled with their frustration, they experienced for being targets for constant attacks is what resulted in their trauma. Tim O’Brien uses the story ‘The Things They Carried’ and different characters show the theme of trauma. Therefore, this essay is purported to demonstrate the effects of trauma both emotionally and physically as a result of war and how those affected to respond to it. The paper, therefore, explores the theme of trauma as a whole in the context setting of war highlighting the emotional, mental and physical effects. As a result, a new structure and identity of the lives of the participating bodies are acquired.
The narrator uses different characters to show the emotional and physical baggage that they drag as they move around and how it has reflected in their lives. The title itself has also been used both literally and metaphorically to refer to the luggage that they carry around and the emotional weight that weighs heavily on them, all of which are a traumatic result of the war. The soldiers are said to be moving ghosts as part of their emotional baggage (O’Brien 48). In looking at the characters, the soldiers are forced to carry around various items for war such as maps, binoculars, rounds of ammunition and fully-loaded guns around.

It is meant to ensure that they were armed whenever the enemy attacked. It weighed on them physically as each of them carried more them heavily and could have resulted in physical trauma, owing to how heavy they were (“Tim O’Brien | The Artifice” N.p)
One result of trauma is the effect it has on one’s mental health. In looking at the character of Jimmy Cross, who is also the leader of the group, the happenings of the war have left him longing for the love of a woman who cannot love him back. He becomes infatuated with Martha to appoint that can only be described as the epitome of madness. He obsesses over Martha`s letters and even has fantasies of how romantic their time together will be despite knowing that she does not have feelings of sexual love for him. As a result of the war, the violence has left him traumatized that his original fantasy involves the use of force on Martha, to tie her up on her bed just to feel her left knee.
The war leaves him longing for love and affection, and he goes to insane extents to prove to himself that he has the love that he so desires. He guards Martha`s letters jealously and has even formed a daily routine of how he handles them. Every day in the late afternoon, he digs a foxhole, washes his hands under a canteen then unwraps the letters which he holds with tips of the fingers after which he spends the whole of the night fantasizing about the love that he longs for (O’Brien, 172-189). To him, love acts as a distraction and the infatuation is what keeps him from the reality of the Vietnam war. It prevents him from thinking about the enemies that could be hiding in the darkness ready to pounce on them as they sleep.
Ted Lavender is emotionally traumatized as he constantly lives in fear due to what he witnessed during the war. He walks around with tranquilizers, which we can conclude are used to help reduce his anxiety especially during night time. His paranoia causes him to walk around with a loaded gun, with the hope that it will protect him. He is however killed unceremoniously, and he dies a coward as described by Kiowa who claims that the moment he fell like a big sandbag after being shot in the head, in spite of the fact that he had rounds of ammunition on him (“Tim O’Brien | The Artifice” N.p).
Trauma has made the soldiers live life knowing that they could die at any moment. The fact that they are in danger is when the writer says they are walking through a land that has been mined and booby-trapped. It means that they leave in the valley of death where death is rife. They thus walk around with bandages in their helmet bands for easy access.
Trauma makes people insensitive to pain especially baggage. Looking at the items that the soldiers walk around with, they weighed between 15-20 pounds and added onto this luggage is a nylon-covered flat jacket that weighs 6.7 lbs and a poncho that weighed 2 pounds. However, this heaviness did not deter them as they feel that the luggage has become part of them. In comparison to deaths in the war, the baggage that they carry is way lighter. Looking at their emotional states, they bear substantial issues, such as Jimmy who is bereft of a lover and it is easy to conclude that the matters weighing on his heart are heavier than the load that he carries on his back. The soldiers armed themselves with ammunitions, loaded guns, and grenades, and ready to kill. They are thus physically and emotionally detached from the physical world and the humanness as a result of trauma after the war, and they deal with this by living cautiously. Anyone who walks their way is considered an enemy and their ultimate wage are death.
Kiowa is insensitive when he describes Ted Lavender`s death. He repeats the narration of how Ted fell after being shot numerous times, and this attributes to a disturbed mind that has witnessed numerous deaths during the war. His description of Ted`s death, whom he refers as a poor bastard is said to have just fallen, and he compares it to watching a rock fall (O’Brien, 150-167). His trauma has forced him to completely detach from worldly emotions since he does not feel sad upon the death of one of their soldiers. He deals with his insensitivity by ridiculing others such as Ted who he implies died a coward yet he was a soldier at war.
Trauma results in self-blame. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross feels like he is the one to blame for Ted Lavender`s death even though he was not around when it happened. The Lieutenant deals by alienating himself and causes his thoughts to revert to Martha whom he averts blame for Ted`s death. He also feels that thinking about Martha and his love for her will provide a haven from all the emotional turmoil that he is currently experiencing. To him, avoidance will help him cope with the trauma. When he starts to feel guilty, he opts to burn all of Martha’s photographs and letters, showing how trauma can also result in making rash decisions. He forces himself to hate Martha even though a part of him still loves her (Kowalewski N.p).
The book has a setting in the jungles of Vietnam where the war is taking place. The author says that the area is mined and booby-trapped to give us an overview of the physical conditions that have contributed to the traumatic experiences of the soldiers and help to explain why they are armed. The author uses irony to explain Ted Lavender’s death. Despite being armed with the most ammunition in the group of soldiers, he ends up dying quite a traumatizing death. He is shot in the head and does not use any of the ammunitions since trauma had made him fearful. His death also traumatizes Lieutenant Cross, who feels that he is responsible for his death for having sent tie thinking about Martha instead of looking out for his soldiers (Kowalewski N.p).
In conclusion, an insight into the theme of trauma has a vivid description of the state of authors and expounds more on how they behave as a result of suffering from trauma. The author states in detail what the soldiers have carried, and the emphasis is put on the weapons which range from grenades to ammunition about the emotional and physical response. These weapons are to be used for mass murder and thus will result in further trauma for the soldiers who will suffer emotionally. The author also explains Jimmy Cross’ daily routine as he moves around with the letters that Martha sent him. It is to show that dealing with traumatizing experiences at war have left him longing for the one person that he loves the most, and he feels that the daily routine will keep him closer to her despite being stuck in Vietnam. Therefore, the various effects of war as described in this essay, therefore, can be generalized as adverse and the resultant new identity acquired is undesirable among the lives of those affected.

Works cited
Kowalewski, Laurence R. “Tim O’brien’s “The Things They Carried”: Postmodern Fiction for A Postmodern War”. Inquiries Journal. N.p., 2016. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. 1st ed. New York: Broadway Books, 1998. Print.
“Tim O’Brien’S The Things They Carried: Using Fiction To Cope With Tragedy | The Artifice”. The-artifice.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.