Grief And Horror The Themes Of War In 'The Things They Carried'

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Homesick, Grief and Horror the Themes of War

War stories have reoccurring themes because war impacts so many peoples’ lives. War can make a person homesick where all the can think of is going home. Some people suffer from grief the loss of a loved one or someone they knew being killed in battle. Others recall absolute horror and shock from the things they have seen. War takes its toll on everybody, from the people on the battlefield to the family’s at home. Soldier’s on the battlefield or just away from home all deal with homesickness, they are taken away from their families, sent to a place with a culture they know little about, and try to learn a language they have never heard before. Soldiers suffer from homesickness a lot harder than …show more content…

A soldier is always carrying a ton of stress, whether it is a physical strain or a mental one. The constant burden of weight being on a soldier 's shoulders is enough to break a man. In the story "The Things They Carried" by author Tim O 'Brien he writes constantly about the weight of the objects they carried with them during the Vietnam war, and at the same time explains things that caused the mental strain that they all carried. In the story the narrator describes the underlying grief all the characters experienced after one of their squad mates was shot while walking back to the campsite. It may not be spoken of at times, but even the characters themselves allude to going through different phases of grief, such as giving up the drugs or when Lt. Cross burned the photos. Soldiers were not just subject to grief America was hurting at the time with all the riots, protest, and families coping with their sons being sent off to war. In the movie Letters Home from Vietnam, a letter was left at the Vietnam memorial of a grieving mother who had lost her son, who was killed in a firefight. She goes on throughout the letter hearing of all the things he had done while in Vietnam, and how he was one of the few that didn 't change while being there. Grief effects everyone in different ways but it will always be a reoccurring theme when it comes to

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