After the Vietnam War, many soldiers returned home only to suffer from depression. For example, in Tim O'Brien’s book, The Things They Carried, Norman Bowker is one such soldier. He comes home to a town full of life, but it seems like a ghost town to him. While dealing with the horrible memories of war, he also has a hard time adjusting to his new surroundings. He finds out his girlfriend married another man, and he drives in circles around the lake in his hometown, where his best friend drowned to death. He drives continuously around the lake, making up conversations with people who are not actually there. He thinks, “There was nothing to say. He could not talk about it and never would” (147). He tries to move past the war, but he feels as
