The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

A Lasting Impact It is estimated that anywhere between ten and thirty-one percent of Vietnam veterans have experienced post traumatic stress disorder sometime in their life. However, just because someone has not been labeled with that disorder, it does not mean there have not been long-lasting affects on that person. Throughout the book, we see the initial and long-lasting impacts that the Vietnam war has had on soldiers. This book is written in Tim’s point of view as he tells other soldier’s stories, as well as his own. Most of the book is told as Tim is looking back on his time as a soldier but there are times when we see him in present time with his family, over twenty years after the war. Over the course of the book The Things They Carried

While stationed in My Khe, Tim had killed a man using a grenade even though he did not want to kill him. All he wanted to do was make him go away so he would no longer be a threat. Even before seeing the dead body, he instantly felt remorseful. Tim said, “It occurred to me then that he was about to die. I wanted to warn him.” (O’Brien 94). Towards the end of the book, Tim begins planning revenge on Bobby Jorgensen for not properly treating him when he was shot. Instead of being empathetic about how it was only Jorgensen’s first time in the war, Tim wanted to hurt him the way he had been hurt. He also realizes that he is different than he once was when he says this: “Something had gone wrong. I'd come to this war a quiet, thoughtful sort of person, a college grad, Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude, all the credentials, but after seven months in the bush I realized that those high, civilized trappings had somehow been crushed under the weight of the simple daily realities. I'd turned mean inside. Even a little cruel at times.”(O’Brien 138). A man who had once felt so incredibly bad for killing a person now wants to intentionally hurt someone

Early in the book, the platoon found a baby water buffalo that Rat Kiley began shooting at out of anger due to his friend’s death. “He shot it in the hindquarters and in the little hump at its back. He shot it twice in the flanks. It wasn't to kill; it was to hurt.” (O’Brien 59). We see the angry and sad side of Rat by how he deals with his anger. “Then he did an odd thing. He leaned in and put his head against my shoulder and almost hugged me. Coming from Rat Kiley, that was something new.” (O’Brien 130). Now we see the softer side of Rat through his close friendship with Tim. Tim’s connections with the rest of the men in the platoon is how we are able to see the changes in other