The Trauma of the Vietnam War

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" and how it portrays the heartbreaking realities the veterans of the Vietnam War faced. The paper also refers to Fred Turner's book, "Echoes of Combat: The Vietnam War in American Memory" that describes how numerous returning soldiers were diagnosed by psychologists with post-traumatic stress disorder. The paper notes the psychological strife experienced by America as a whole, and concludes that the Vietnam War ultimately changed American society and its history.

From the Paper:

"Among the many catastrophic and tragic events in American history, the Vietnam War corrupted the lives of veterans and inflicted emotional pain upon their loved ones. In a time of crisis, the repercussions and psychological instabilities are often as damaging as the crisis itself. In Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," the narration of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is an exemplary parallel to the psychological responses that soldiers of war encounter. With a reflective understanding of the mental effects of war experience, the recount of fictional Vietnam War anecdotes in "The Things They Carried" gives American society a way to personally relate to the heartbreaking realities
the veterans faced."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Baskir, Lawrence M., and William A. Strauss. "The Vietnam Generation." The Wounded Generation: America After Vietnam. Ed. Horne, A.D. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981.
• Heberle, Mark A. "True War Stories." Short Story Criticism: Criticism of the Works of Short Fiction Writers. Vol. 74. New York: Thomson Gale, 2005.
• Herr, Michael. "Vietnam Nights." The Wounded Generation: America After Vietnam. Ed. Horne, A.D. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981.
• Hillstrom, Kevin, and Laurie Collier Hillstrom. The Vietnam Experience: A Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs, and Films. London: Greenwood Press, 1998.
• O'Brien, Tim. "The Things They Carried." Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 2002. 65-76.

More papers on The Trauma of the Vietnam War:

• Book Review # 112165 : "Trauma of a Soldier"
• Book Review # 133646 : "Tim O'Brien: The Reality of Combat in Vietnam"
• Analytical Essay # 63076 : "Stories of the Vietnam War"

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