Emotional Burdens in the Vietnam War and Tim O’Brien Vietnam soldiers during the war carried emotional burdens because of seeing their mates being killed, the constant fear of death and the traumatic events they were involved. The effects persevere in their minds during and after the war causing a lost in personality and PTSD. The author Tim O’Brien dedicated his life writing about the Vietnam War. The author’s personal experiences and the guilt of forming part of a war he opposed, were part of his inspiration for writing about the Vietnam War. Soldiers in the Vietnam War carried as an emotional burden the loss of their mates and some that saw the traumatic events were marked for life, including those who were directly involved. In the Vietnam
…show more content…
Cold-blooded killing was part of the Vietnam War and no boundaries or rules were followed. Soldiers were constantly paranoid of getting shot by a sniper rifle or being blown up into pieces by all kinds of trap explosives that were used against them. The Vietnam War was not a conventional war, their experience with deadly traps and South Vietnamese oppositions of war threatening US soldiers, caused paranoia in them The constant thinking that they could die anytime or be killed by a Vietnamese, erased the line between Vietnam guerrillas and the Vietnam civilians leaving US armed forces with mental disorders (Hochgesang et al). The My Lai massacre reflects the inhuman type of war that had taken place in Vietnam and the changed in US soldiers that went from civilians to heartless killers, this because of their burdens caused by the exposure of War atrocities. The My Lai massacre was a result of the psychological damage caused by inhuman War environment these soldiers lived and in his writing, Josh Hochgesang et al acknowledge that “[US armed forces] felt they could not trust any of the Vietnamese, which made them paranoid most of the time. They constantly feared death and were deeply traumatized as they saw their comrades being shredded to pieces by bullets and mines.” The weight of their burdens caused them PTSD and loss …show more content…
The author’s “experiences in Vietnam shaped the nature and focus of most of his later writing” (Sallas) and form part of the root of his inspiration. The author O’Brien writes about the event when he lost his friend Chip and soldier mate in Vietnam, when they were blown up to pieces by a grenade (98) in his book If I Die, respectively reflecting his trauma of losing a friend in combat. Through his books he details and reveals his experiences, also makes known that his “service in the Americal Division presented him with jarring, traumatic material, but also made writing a need rather than a choice” (Sallas) to free from his burdens of being part of the Vietnam War. O’Brien combines his personal experiences with a sense of fiction to address the realities of war and make known his own story in Vietnam. Although O’Brien was not part of the My Lai massacre, he shows a certain connection to the place in his book In Lake of Woods, because 13 months after the 1968 massacre, O’Brien division patrolled the area of My Lai, where he was wounded during service and as result was awarded a purple hurt (Herzog
Cold-blooded killing was part of the Vietnam War and no boundaries or rules were followed. Soldiers were constantly paranoid of getting shot by a sniper rifle or being blown up into pieces by all kinds of trap explosives that were used against them. The Vietnam War was not a conventional war, their experience with deadly traps and South Vietnamese oppositions of war threatening US soldiers, caused paranoia in them The constant thinking that they could die anytime or be killed by a Vietnamese, erased the line between Vietnam guerrillas and the Vietnam civilians leaving US armed forces with mental disorders (Hochgesang et al). The My Lai massacre reflects the inhuman type of war that had taken place in Vietnam and the changed in US soldiers that went from civilians to heartless killers, this because of their burdens caused by the exposure of War atrocities. The My Lai massacre was a result of the psychological damage caused by inhuman War environment these soldiers lived and in his writing, Josh Hochgesang et al acknowledge that “[US armed forces] felt they could not trust any of the Vietnamese, which made them paranoid most of the time. They constantly feared death and were deeply traumatized as they saw their comrades being shredded to pieces by bullets and mines.” The weight of their burdens caused them PTSD and loss …show more content…
The author’s “experiences in Vietnam shaped the nature and focus of most of his later writing” (Sallas) and form part of the root of his inspiration. The author O’Brien writes about the event when he lost his friend Chip and soldier mate in Vietnam, when they were blown up to pieces by a grenade (98) in his book If I Die, respectively reflecting his trauma of losing a friend in combat. Through his books he details and reveals his experiences, also makes known that his “service in the Americal Division presented him with jarring, traumatic material, but also made writing a need rather than a choice” (Sallas) to free from his burdens of being part of the Vietnam War. O’Brien combines his personal experiences with a sense of fiction to address the realities of war and make known his own story in Vietnam. Although O’Brien was not part of the My Lai massacre, he shows a certain connection to the place in his book In Lake of Woods, because 13 months after the 1968 massacre, O’Brien division patrolled the area of My Lai, where he was wounded during service and as result was awarded a purple hurt (Herzog