In the novel, The Things They Carried written by author, Tim O’Brien the Vietnam war has a profound effect on the young soldiers who are forced into fighting in it. The war effects each of these characters in different ways and changes their lives and how they see the world forever. Some of these characters survive the war itself but the long lasting effects on them mentally and emotionally, are too much to bear after coming home to a community that they no longer feel they belong in. It effected some of them so much it had a heavy influence on whether they even came home at all.
Tim O’Brien is against the war, because he doesn’t understand why it’s even being fought in the first place.” The only certainty that summer was moral confusion. It was my view then, and still is, that you don’t make war without knowing why” …show more content…
It took everything he knew as an innocent young man and changed him into someone he didn’t recognize anymore” something had gone wrong. I’d come to this war a quiet, thoughtful sort of person, a college grad, Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude, all the credentials, but after seven months’ in the bush I realized those high, civilized trappings had somehow been crushed under the weight of the simple daily realities. Id turned mean inside.” (O’Brien 200). The guilt and shame for what they have been sent to Vietnam to do drive them insane. They cope by attempting to be colder than they are, and cracking jokes about the dead they encounter. Norman Bowker becomes so disconnected after the war to any other normal person, he can’t find a way to cope outside of Vietnam. He’s driven insane by this lack of connection and ultimately leads to his suicide. “The town could not talk, and would not listen.” How’d you like to hear about the war?” he might have asked, but the place could only blink and shrug.” (O’Brien
Tim O’Brien is against the war, because he doesn’t understand why it’s even being fought in the first place.” The only certainty that summer was moral confusion. It was my view then, and still is, that you don’t make war without knowing why” …show more content…
It took everything he knew as an innocent young man and changed him into someone he didn’t recognize anymore” something had gone wrong. I’d come to this war a quiet, thoughtful sort of person, a college grad, Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude, all the credentials, but after seven months’ in the bush I realized those high, civilized trappings had somehow been crushed under the weight of the simple daily realities. Id turned mean inside.” (O’Brien 200). The guilt and shame for what they have been sent to Vietnam to do drive them insane. They cope by attempting to be colder than they are, and cracking jokes about the dead they encounter. Norman Bowker becomes so disconnected after the war to any other normal person, he can’t find a way to cope outside of Vietnam. He’s driven insane by this lack of connection and ultimately leads to his suicide. “The town could not talk, and would not listen.” How’d you like to hear about the war?” he might have asked, but the place could only blink and shrug.” (O’Brien