Platoon Of American Soldiers In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

“Alone with the thoughts of what should have long been forgotten, I let myself be carried away into the silent screams of delirium (quote from Amanda Steele).” In traumatic life-threatening events, such as rape, divorce, death, abandonment, and even war, a psychiatric disorder known as PTSD may form, leaving people in distress, isolation, and in numerous other states. It’s a tough mountain to climb, and many people have difficulties dealing with it. In the book, The Things They Carried—a novel by Tim O’Brien, about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War—several of the main characters undergo similar situations in the war and have to deal with PTSD themselves. No one wins in war, no one comes out the same; throughout war, people undergo …show more content…
One amongst those was Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Before the war, Cross was just a sophomore in college, and he decides to sign up for Reserve Officer training because his friends were doing it. He never had the desire to be in the war, or even cared anything about the war. In all that he does as the team leader, he is very unsure, scared of what may happen with him in charge. Later, in the war, Cross faced many other obstacles, such as deaths, that led to shame and guilt, forming PTSD in his mind. Cross can be viewed as a Christ like figure. Christ took on the sin of the world upon his shoulders, in order to save everyone in it. “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God… (1 Peter 3:18).” All of the world had sinned, but Jesus’ love for the men and women of this world brought him to the cross to take on the very sin we people committed. Like Christ who suffers for his children, Cross suffers for his platoon. For example, in the book, The Things They Carried, Cross takes on the blame and guilt of Kiowa’s death. He concludes that he made a mistake in letting his platoon set up camp on the riverbank. If it wasn’t for Cross setting up camp here, Cross believes Kiowa would still be alive with them. Another incidence when Cross takes on the blame of someone’s …show more content…
Before the war, O’Brien was top of his class, and could’ve done anything with is life. He came to a point where he was pressured into joining the war. He doesn’t want to fight, but he also doesn’t want the shame of being a coward. In “On the Rainy River,” Cross is just a young man out of college, faced with the pressure on if he should escape to Canada or not. He stays in the Tip Top Lodge, which isn’t even a mile from the border of Canada. One day, he goes out on a boat, and he gets less than 20 yards from the border. He could escape, he could avoid the war, but the shame of not going to war crept into his mind and takes over. “Traitor! they yelled. Turncoat! Pussy!...I couldn’t tolerate it. I couldn’t endure the mockery, or the disgrace, or the patriotic ridicule…Embarrassment, that’s all it was (O’Brien 57).” What keeps O’Brien from fleeing is not anything other than the concern of what everyone will think, his family, his friends, and his community, if he doesn’t go to the war to fight. In “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien describes another incident where he felt guilt, except this time for the man he killed. He is so guilty of this, he imagines the man’s life if he hadn’t been killed. He’s even unclear if he even actually killed this man. This is a result of what the war has done to his mind damage wise. Many experiences led O’Brien to be