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Emotional and psychological effects of war on soldiers
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In If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O’Brien, the author argued that the Vietnam War was horrible as a whole through his depictions of the steady mistreatment by commanding officers, the soldiers experiences of innocent deaths which caused emotional damage, and the demanding physical work they went through on a daily basis.
The soldiers endured a lack of adequate leadership, which contributed to the author’s reasoning for his dislike towards the war. Disrespect from soldiers to their leaders was apparent, but was expected when the same respect was not being given back in return. Taking advantage of his job, Reno, a squad leader in charge of O’brien, awakens him ten minutes earlier and causes a mistrust and lack of respect to be instantly built.
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Because of his authority there isn't a way for him to call on his actions which contribute to the horrids of the war (pg. 90-92). Ridiculed by his unqualified leaders made it difficult for him and his comrades to complete tasks. Once O’brien and Erik sat behind the barracks to polish boots and get away from the noise of everyone, Drill Sergeant Blyton saw them alone and began to assume and ridicule them. Using his power to make them pull guard together as punishment, shows yet another of the unregulated authority their officials had in motion (pg.47-48). To be a leader in an army one must be able to effectively be ahead of the enemy, when precautions are not taken and people’s lives are at risk, shows the leader's true capability. Captain Smith sent troops down to circle a hill, later an explosion is heard and a member of the patrol comes back with news of a mine. The damages this reckless command causes shows that he mistreats his leadership and is not able to accurately represent his commandment (pg. 161). Throughout the novel the commandment mistreated their power and made O’Brien’s time in the war harder than what was necessary. There have been many scenarios where O'Brien is faced with depictions of situations where he has a great disturbance and confusion towards why the soldiers enjoy death.
These instances contribute to his emotional turmoil and hatred towards the Vietnam War. The deaths became constant, and most would learn to conceal their emotions on the subject. One day the Alpha Company was traveling from one village near Pinkville to another. Passing by a herd of cows and many young boys in a field, the soldiers took this opportunity for target practice, just like at Fort Lewis. O’Brien did not shoot, but did so without protest. Amazed at his comrades for their actions and outward pleasure by the smiles on their face (pg. 139). Emotionally the war is changing these men, making them numb to the fact of death, and others who watch and wonder are still apart of the overall effect. He mentions on page 81 that O’Brien has even found himself not knowing when people arrive and when others die. The emotional turmoil has affected him and his officers tremendously in the fact that they have all learned that the death of the vietnamese and possibly of their own, are just apart of the war (pg. 141). Mad Mark, the platoon leader, is described to have no-fear or in other words “insanely calm.” This emotionlessness is apparent when he flaunts a ear he just cut off a person he killed. The other soldiers giggle and find his stunt as amusing, all together confirming that the continuous death has damaged his …show more content…
sense of emotion towards the dead (pg. 81-84). These cruel depictions create emotional turmoil, or a great disturbance for O’Brien to even look back on. From the high ranking officers down to the common soldier all had a loss of emotion illustrated throughout the book. A old blind farmer would help by washing the soldiers when he could. O’Brien was shocked when, for no reason, a soldier the old man was washing hurdled a carton of milk at the man’s face. No one moved to help, even the kids were quiet (pg. 100). This example exhibits how the war changed the men through these unmoral events, and caused emotional damage. The Physical work the soldiers put in was constant, being apart of the Alpha Company made for day-day combat and plenty of reminders that they should always be hoping to be re-assigned.
Anything thing that could “yank” a man off the field and to the rear, was good sign of less physical work ahead (pg. 172). Working from day-to-day without much rest or time to recuperate shows the intensity of the physical and negative effects the war has brought upon O’Brien. For instance on page 77 Buddy Wolf tells O’Brien to remember that the battle they faced the day before will not match those ahead. With little sleep and a lack of nourishment this remark, one of many to come, worries O’Brien (pg.
78). The physical drainage would continue to be inescapable and stooping with little time to rest made the battles seem longer and harder than what they might have been. Shocked by the lack of recovery time O’Brien speaks out to officer who goes on a rank about the endless hard work that they have yet to see (pg. 27). The battling and constant marching through villages, war grounds unknown, and the loss of time for convalescence are apart of the few examples of why the war was physically draining and horrible to endure. In conclusion Tim O’Brien argued that the Vietnam War was morally incorrect, and horrible in its entirety by showing the officers misuse of their power, the soldier's emotional turmoil caused by the numerous of innocent deaths, and the physical work they experienced.
It is known that he was a sergeant, he was shot multiple times, and his friend,Linda, died when he was young. It is also known that O’Brien would make up stories to bring his friend back to life. O’Brien tells us “I made elaborate stories to bring Linda alive in my sleep (O’Brien 243).” Later, O’Brien would bring his other friends back using stories. This shows that there was something wrong with O’Brien before he went to war. It also helps to show that the problem was made worse by the war. O’Brien says that “something had gone wrong. I’d come to this war a quiet, thoughtful sort of person, a college grad...but after the seven months in the bush I realized that those high, civilized trappings had somehow been crushed under the weight of the simple daily realities (200).” O’Brien had directly stated his realization that the war had changed him. He figured out that his personality had changed; he realized that he now felt more mean.
In The Things They Carried, an engaging novel of war, author Tim O’Brien shares the unique warfare experience of the Alpha Company, an assembly of American military men that set off to fight for their country in the gruesome Vietnam War. Within the novel, the author O’Brien uses the character Tim O’Brien to narrate and remark on his own experience as well as the experiences of his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company. Throughout the story, O’Brien gives the reader a raw perspective of the Alpha Company’s military life in Vietnam. He sheds light on both the tangible and intangible things a soldier must bear as he trudges along the battlefield in hope for freedom from war and bloodshed. As the narrator, O’Brien displayed a broad imagination, retentive memory, and detailed descriptions of his past as well as present situations. 5. The author successfully uses rhetoric devices such as imagery, personification, and repetition of O’Brien to provoke deep thought and allow the reader to see and understand the burden of the war through the eyes of Tim O’Brien and his soldiers.
Tim O'Brien is confused about the Vietnam War. He is getting drafted into it, but is also protesting it. He gets to boot camp and finds it very difficult to know that he is going off to a country far away from home and fighting a war that he didn't believe was morally right. Before O'Brien gets to Vietnam he visits a military Chaplin about his problem with the war. "O'Brien I am really surprised to hear this. You're a good kid but you are betraying you country when you say these things"(60). This says a lot about O'Brien's views on the Vietnam War. In the reading of the book, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tim O'Brien explains his struggles in boot camp and when he is a foot soldier in Vietnam.
Tim O’Brien begins his journey as a young “politically naive” man and has recently graduated out of Macalester College in the United States of America. O’Brien’s plan for the future is steady, but this quickly changes as a call to an adventure ruins his expected path in life. In June of 1968, he receives a draft notice, sharing details about his eventual service in the Vietnam War. He is not against war, but this certain war seemed immoral and insignificant to Tim O’Brien. The “very facts were shrouded in uncertainty”, which indicates that the basis of the war isn’t well known and perceived
O Brien 's point of view is an accurate one as he himself because he is a Vietnam veteran. The title of the short story is meaningful because it describes each soldier’s personality and how he handles conflict within the mind and outside of the body during times of strife. The title fits the life as a soldier perfectly because it shows the reality that war is more than just strategy and attacking of forces. O’Brien narrates the story from two points of view: as the author and the view of the characters. His style keeps the reader informed on both the background of things and the story itself at the same
When O’Brien first arrives to Vietnam, the men of the platoon show him how the grief of war can be covered up by humor. As the men were patrolling near a village off the South China Sea they suddenly started to encounter sniper fire. The firefight only lasted a few minutes but Lt. Cross decided to order an airstrike on the village anyways. After the strike was over, the platoon proceeded to the smoldering village to find nothing but “…an old man who lay face up near a pigpen at the center of the village. His right arm was gone. At his face there were already many flies and gnats.”(). To many, this image of a destroyed village and the mutilated old man would cause horror and plight. Instead of that normal reaction, “Dave Jensen went over and shook the old man’s hand. “How-dee-doo,” he said.”(). The other men of the platoon also went up to the dead man’s body and shook his hand while adding a comment. This disturbing response the men have to the dead old man isn’t one of disrespect, it is their coping mechanism for realizing what they just did. Because O’Brien was new to Vietnam he had yet to understand why the men were all doing this. He was awestruck by the actions...
Several stories into the novel, in the section, “How to tell a true war story”, O’Brien begins to warn readers of the lies and exaggerations that may occur when veterans tell war stories.
In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the readers follow the Alpha Company’s experiences during the Vietnam War through the telling’s of the main character and narrator, Tim. At the beginning of the story, Tim describes the things that each character carries, also revealing certain aspects of the characters as can be interpreted by the audience. The book delineates what kind of person each character is throughout the chapters. As the novel progresses, the characters’ personalities change due to certain events of the war. The novel shows that due to these experiences during the Vietnam War, there is always a turning point for each soldier, especially as shown with Bob “Rat” Kiley and Azar. With this turning point also comes the loss of innocence for these soldiers. O’Brien covers certain stages of grief and self-blame associated with these events in these stories as well in order to articulate just how those involved felt so that the reader can imagine what the effects of these events would be like for them had they been a part of it.
In the early stages of the story O’Brien is faced with a “moral emergency”, though the draft letter sent to him in the early summer of 1968 stirred up many more feelings than that of just a moral nature. O’Brien experienced unease within his conscience about how this particular war had no “imperative of its cause”; people were dying for reasons unknown. This news also hit him in a deeply emotional way; he became quite livid with the entire idea of
Tim O’ Brien alternates between narrative and descriptions of the tangible items that they soldiers carry. He remembers seemingly everything that his squad mates were carrying and provides an “emotionless recitation” of the weights of each of the items the soldiers carried into the field. He frequently uses the term “humping” to describe how the soldiers carry their gear; making them appear more uncivilized, like animals. As he switches back to mentioning the intangible items, such as the experiences of his leader Jimmy Cross and his love Martha, the emotional weights of each soldier is felt by the reader. This contrast in style affirms that they soldiers are human and provides emphasis to the weight these intangible objects have on the soldiers.
The Vietnam War was not a “pretty” war. Soldiers were forced to fight guerilla troops, were in combat during horrible weather, had to live in dangerous jungles, and, worst of all, lost sight of who they were. Many soldiers may have entered with a sense of pride, but returned home desensitized. The protagonist in Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible,” is testament to this. In the story, the protagonist is a young man full of life prior to the war, and is a mere shell of his former self after the war. The protagonists in Tim O’Brien’s “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” and Irene Zabytko’s “Home Soil,” are also gravely affected by war. The three characters must undergo traumatic experiences. Only those who fought in the Vietnam War understand what these men, both fictional and in real life, were subjected to. After the war, the protagonists of these stories must learn to deal with a war that was not fought with to win, rather to ensure the United States remained politically correct in handling the conflict. This in turn caused much more anguish and turmoil for the soldiers. While these three stories may have fictionalized events, they connect with factual events, even more so with the ramifications of war, whether psychological, morally emotional, or cultural. “The Red Convertible,” and “Home Soil,” give readers a glimpse into the life of soldiers once home after the war, and how they never fully return, while “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” is a protest letter before joining the war. All three protagonists must live with the aftermath of the Vietnam War: the loss of their identity.
The Vietnam War was a conflict that many people did not comprehend. In fact, the war was atrocious and bloody. According to The Vietnam War: a History in Documents, 58,000 US soldier died and more than 700,000 came back with physical and emotional marks (Young, Fitzgerald & Grunfeld 147). For many Americans this war was meaningless. In the same way, O’Brien admits, “American war in Vietnam seemed to me wrong; certain blood was being shed for uncertain reason” (40). O’Brien believes the war was not significance. Furthermore, the lack of logic in the matter makes him confused about going to war. That’s why, he does not understand why he was sent to fight a war for which causes and effects were uncertain. The author continues by saying, “I was too good for...
Although the soldiers were united and served for the same goal, each of the men had a different motivation. For O’Brien, his motivation to join the war was the shame of running away. Almost all of the characters were afraid of being ashamed, and that served as a drive for them to do acts of heroism and similarly acts of stupidity. For example, in the story “On the Rainy River”, shame drove O’Brien to do an act of heroism as a fear of being ashamed. O’Brien wrote “For more than twenty years I 've had to live with it, feeling the shame, trying to
The three character perspectives on war are interpreted entirely differently. Tim O’Brien is illustrated as the most sensitive soldier out of the three. “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole.” (124). Tim’s sensitivity is revealed when he shows how bewildered he is as he stares at the lifeless Viet Cong body.
As we got further and further into the Vietnam War, few lives were untouched by grief, anger and fear. The Vietnamese suffered the worst hardship; children lay dead in the street, villages remained nothing but charred ashes, and bombs destroyed thousands of innocent civilians. Soldiers were scarred emotionally as well as physically, as