“No person can escape Einsteinian relativity, and no soldier or veteran can escape the trauma of war's dislocation.”- Joe Haldeman. Just as no human can escape the laws of physics which rule the world around us, no soldier can outrun the inevitable suffering that war inflicts. In Tim O’Brien’s short story collection The Things they Carried, a platoon of soldiers live a struggle where they experience various traumatic experiences, carrying them through the war and beyond. The ugly truth about war is that soldiers lose their innocence, and consequentially in absence of guidance deal with prolonged trauma, which transforms them into uncivilized individuals.
They ugly truth about war is that in Vietnam, innocence is quickly lost, and soldiers…show more content… The story starts by describing a “gook” soldier that Tim killed. Throughout the scene, it is apparent that Tim is under heavy shock and stress. With gory imagery such as “[the] jaw was in his throat,” (118) and “his other eye was a star shaped hole,” (118) Tim is able to expose the level of carnage witnessed by soldiers in war. All of a sudden, Tim is startled by the evident child-like appearance of the soldier, giving the latter an eerie sense of innocence. The soldier has “clean fingernails”, meaning that he literally hasn’t gotten his hands dirty with brutality. Furthermore, the soldier is described as a “scholar,” (118) with “the wrists of a child” (118). The juxtaposition of these images indicates the loss of innocence through traumatic experiences. War sends pure, chaste boys into an environment which promotes death and demise. O’Brien elaborates this idea using diction, describing his “black shirt” (118) and his “black pajamas” (118) to emphasize the absent innocence. Stunned by the death of the soldier, O’Brien starts to ponder upon the potential life that this young man led. Tim argues that “He was not a fighter” (119). The Vietnamese soldier is a reflection of Tim’s experiences in war. Like the deceased soldier, Tim has been brought to Vietnam pure, uninvolved on war, with a bright future ahead. War, on the other hand, has other plans for him .O’Brien narrates in the words of the deceased soldier, “He hoped the Americans would go away” (119). This description is evidence of American and Vietnamese soldiers’ reluctance to support the war. The rest who are already infected with anguish react differently to this incident. Azar blurts in excitement, “Oh, man, you fuckin’ trashed that fucker, […] like Shredded fuckin’ Wheat” (119). This senseless and vulgar response is
