Coping Mechanisms to Survive

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how, during the Vietnam War, soldiers were not exposed to the traditional coping mechanisms of our American society, as illustrated in Tim O?Brien?s "The Things They Carried". It looks at how these men were forced to discover and invent new ways to deal with the pressures of war, using only the resources they had in the Vietnamese jungle. It was not possible for any soldier to carry many items or burdens with them, but if something was a necessity, a way was found to carry it, and coping mechanisms were a necessity to survive the war.

From the Paper:

"The conditions of war can be enough to drive a person to the edge of insanity, causing him or her to need something personal to bring them back to reality. They were in the war twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and the securities that each soldier had were the only things that kept them sane. Lt. Jimmy Cross repeatedly had thoughts and visions of Martha, left at home. He would read the letters she sent him and wonder about her as a tactic to keep him connected with the real world and the life he had left."

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