Horrific war scenes remain with a soldier throughout their entire life existence. Soldiers are unable to put their war experiences behind them, repeatedly feeling unsafe and frequently reliving past war scenes. Soldiers fight through chaos and violence, hoping to leave it all on the battlefield when they walk away from the war, but “for [them], forgetting was never an option. Remembering is a noble and necessary act” (Wiesel 2). Sacrificing everything and leaving family behind, soldiers experience traumatic and frightening times when fighting for their country. They walk away from the battlefields hoping to leave everything there, but every daunting moment of the war scene is a vivid memory until the day they die. Not only is fighting a war challenging for a soldier, but life after the …show more content…
Years later, when a soldier sits down and attempts to write a letter in peace to a fellow comrade from war, he describes how “the bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, replaying itself over and over” (O’Brien 31). Soldiers are never able to put their past in the past. Decades later, soldiers continue to remember the dreadful experience they were put through while reliving each and every moment of it, feeling the same emotions they felt while at war. Each one of them hopes to return home to their family and live a healthy and typical lifestyle, blending in with the rest of their community. However, in reality, this frequently does not occur, the littlest noises or people remind them of traumatic battlefield experiences, causing a soldier to react as if they were still fighting a war. Not only do the soldiers struggle putting the war behind themselves, but some of their wounds and injuries are permanent, limiting them from living their life and causing people to constantly stare. Finally, when war is finished, problems are not solved, they only start to
The reality that shapes individuals as they fight in war can lead to the resentment they have with the world and the tragedies that they had experienced in the past. Veterans are often times overwhelmed with their fears and sensations of their past that commonly disables them to transgress and live beyond the emotions and apprehensions they witness in posttraumatic experiences. This is also seen in everyday lives of people as they too experience traumatic events such as September 11th and the fall of the World Trade Center or simply by regrets of decisions that is made. Ones fears, emotions and disturbances that are embraced through the past are the only result of the unconscious reality of ones future.
In the aftermath of a comparatively minor misfortune, all parties concerned seem to be eager to direct the blame to someone or something else. It seems so easy to pin down one specific mistake that caused everything else to go wrong in an everyday situation. However, war is a vastly different story. War is ambiguous, an enormous and intangible event, and it cannot simply be blamed for the resulting deaths for which it is indirectly responsible. Tim O’Brien’s story, “In the Field,” illustrates whom the soldiers turn to with the massive burden of responsibility for a tragedy. The horrible circumstances of war transform all involved and tinge them with an absurd feeling of personal responsibility as they struggle to cope.
The Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger once said “Perjor est bello timor ipse belli”, which translates to: “the dread of war is worse than war itself”. With this quote, Seneca identifies that war has both its physical and mental tolls on its participants. The psychological and emotional scars of war do much more damage to a soldier than the actual physical battles. Tim O’ Brien repeats this idea many years later in his novel “The Things They Carried”, by describing how emotional burdens outweigh the physical loads that those in war must endure. What keeps them alive is the hope that they may one day return home to their loved ones.
Many individuals look at soldiers for hope and therefore, add load to them. Those that cannot rationally overcome these difficulties may create Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tragically, some resort to suicide to get away from their insecurities. Troops, notwithstanding, are not by any means the only ones influenced by wars; relatives likewise encounter mental hardships when their friends and family are sent to war. Timothy Findley precisely depicts the critical impact wars have on people in his novel by showing how after-war characters are not what they were at the beginning.
John F. Kennedy once said “Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind”. War runs the danger of destroying a soldier’s mind and body. When a soldier does leave the battlefield he/she still has to carry the burden of war. Servicemen and women have to go on living and hiding the emotional and physical wounds of war. In the short story “The Sniper” author Liam O’ Flaherty includes the element of surprise to real that war not only causes physical risk, but also psychological suffering.
Revised Main Thesis/Central Claim: WWII soldiers with strong mental might were able to survive through the gruesome war, as they kept their spirits up. However, no man was safe from the nightmares and difficulties of PTSD once they returned home after the war.
There is a truth universally acknowledged among those that have seen combat: war changes a man. Sometimes this a positive change, instilling bravery into the hearts of faint-hearted young men or creating bonds of camaraderie that will last lifetimes. Unfortunately, more often war sees a darker change in a man, sees him stuck down, left lifeless in soul if not body. WWII was a dark time for America, and many of the strapping soldiers that left for the glory of war came back injured, seeing ghosts on every front, sick in a way that many people did not understand. Tayo, in Leslie Silko’s Ceremony, is one such man, and Silko’s use of a wandering and fractured narrative showcases these symptoms, and brings to life the struggle soldiers had adjusting to home after visiting what some would call hell.
War is no child 's play, but unfortunately, we have had times in our past when the youth of our great nation had to defend it. Combat is not an easy for anyone; watching death, the constant ring of gunfire, the homesickness, fearing for your life, and witnessing bloodshed daily, this will begin to take its toll. The minds threshold for brutality can only handle so much and eventually will become sickened by these events. This sickness is called Post-traumatic stress disorder. As shown through the characters of The Things They Carried, soldiers of war may begin to show PTSD symptoms before the war is over, and may continue to fight the disorder after the war has ended.
A theme present throughout the novel was the ripple effect of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD - on the lives of those suffering and those who surround them. I thought this less talked about topic was brought to light in an effectively confronting way. A handful of chapters reflecting on Andy’s memories fighting in Afghanistan/Iraq showed what may be going on in someone’s mind that has fought in a war. “Shock waves ripple through metal, glass, and flesh. Bones crumble. Skin explodes. Nerves snap. Brains slosh and spill in dented tin skulls. Arteries spray like high pressure hoses, painting the world a bright, sad red.” Later, when talking to a young man, he tells him, “Killing people is easier than it should be.” “Staying alive is the hard part.” These lines show a deeper reality of war and what it’s like after returning, still haunted by the memories.
Suffering the horrors of war skews a veteran’s world view. Society undercuts the ordeal that soldiers go through and “…trauma exposure can have varying effects on religious and spiritual aspects of peoples’ lives…” (Perera 27). Civilians are ignorant to the experiences of soldiers. They think of
Tina Chen’s critical essay provides information on how returning soldiers aren’t able to connect to society and the theme of alienation and displacement that O’Brien discussed in his stories. To explain, soldiers returning from war feel alienated because they cannot come to terms with what they saw and what they did in battle. Next, Chen discusses how O’Brien talks about soldiers reminiscing about home instead of focusing in the field and how, when something bad happens, it is because they weren’t focused on the field. Finally, when soldiers returned home they felt alienated from the country and
Bracken, Patrick and Celia Petty (editors). Rethinking the Trauma of War. New York, NY: Save the Children Fund, Free Association Books, Ltd, 1998.
The war destroyed and put an end man's life. It destroyed people in physical and even the emotional. These soldiers with major injuries will hold them all back from what they love to do most and what they w...
...turning back. Once they have been robbed of their innocence, they are unable to revert to their previous selves. War and facing the inevitable reality of death can change a person and disturb them for the rest of their lifetime. Many soldiers are naïve when they decide to serve their country; they plan on becoming a hero like their role models of the past. But when one truly experiences war for themselves, they find it unimaginable how people continue to declare war and urge young men to fight and honor their nation and family. One will remain innocent until he experiences the genuine emotional trauma of war.
Even when the war is over, it leaves behind some serious repercussions for people to deal with. War veterans need both psychological and physical care due to the impact of war. Soldiers and civilians who had live through war often witnessed terrible things, which can leave deep emotional scars. Most of them developing psychological problems if not proper psychological care is given. Civilians have to deal to the devastating after effects of war, which includes destroyed and damage to infrastructures