War Changes People: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

War Changes People: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
The effects of war spare no partisan. Whether a priest, wife to the soldier, doctor or soldier, everyone is susceptible to the impacts of war. According to Taylor et al. (154), war tends to alter both the mental and psychological status of an individual making their actions and decision different from what they were before they ventured into a battlefield. Telch et al. (199) state that war sometimes takes the humanity part of human beings or makes some of them seek to be better people in the society to seek redemption for their sinful actions while on the battlefield. Greif, fear, hope, and aggressiveness are all elements created by war and Taylor et al. (154) state that they all have the potential to alter how people perceive the world when affected. The effects can either be positive or negative. In this context, we analyze how war alters the psychological and mental state of people in relation to O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.

War results in sadness for those suffering the loss of their loved ones and the experience of the sad life has the potential to alter the behavior of those affected. In O’Brien’s The Things They Carried describes the life and experience of Rat Kiley and how he changes after being part of a war. O’Brien uses Kelly’s experience to reflect upon how war changes the lives of men in society when they suffer the loss of loved one and property during the war. Kiley’s life in the novel is more of unique to the rest as he is considered to live the life of the crowd.

He serves on the battlefield as a doctor and being a medic, he plays the role of treating and giving the injured soldier hope for survival. He constantly makes use of his humor and kindness to make the soldiers pull through a difficult situation. However, war soon changes all his personality after the Death of Ted Lavender. “…right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing…” (O’Brien 153). After the death of Ted, Kiley kept on saying “The guy is dead” so much that it ended up sounding profound. Later, Kiley gets another immediate blow with the death of his close friend Curt Lemon which finally changes him both mentally and psychologically (O’Brien 143). He goes ahead to shoot a young buffalo and even tries to drive a bullet in his own foot so that he can be discharged from the battlefield. In this case, war creates sadness in Kiley’s life which later breaks him and drive him crazy.
Moreover, the aftermath of a way experience tends to leave the participants with psychological burdens that define how the act and make decisions in their life. According to Telch et al. (204), the survivors of war carry with them confusion, grief, and guilt from war and all their remaining lives they tend to try to come to terms with what they saw and experience in the battlefield. In O’Brien (18), we not that after the death of Ted Lavender, Jimmy Cross states that he will never forgive himself for the death of his friend. Furthermore, out of grief, guilt, and sadness, Norman Bowker ends up living a confused life characterized by aimless driving around his hometown lake. He goes ahead to scribbles a seventeen-page letter detailing how his life was never the same and worsen after coming back home from the war and his intention to hang himself in YMCA.
In conclusion, war has the tendency of putting people through grief and sadness that cause psychological and mental problems. During and after the war, the participants find it difficult adjusting to their former lives and getting over the experience they had during the war. Those who lose their closed ones are most affect and tend to live a confused and grieving life that is filled with guilt. Therefore, was has a tremendous negative effect on the mental and psychological state people who take part in it.
Works Cited
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Spark Publishing, (2014). 1-158.
Taylor, Christine M., et al. “Differential child maltreatment risk across deployment periods of US Army soldiers.” American journal of public health 106.1 (2016): 153-158.
Telch, Michael J., et al. “5‐HTTLPR genotype potentiates the effects of war zone stressors on the emergence of PTSD, depressive and anxiety symptoms in soldiers deployed to Iraq.” World Psychiatry 14.2 (2015): 198-206.