The Effects of War in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried (Essay Sample)

War is known for the everlasting effects it has on the person.  In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien explores the effects war had on different individuals, making them either better or worse people. The impact of their struggles and sufferings on their daily lives altered during the war. Many young American men were being sent without knowing what their future held. Trying to remember their lives before the war. As they try to escape this living hell. A hell that only caused damage to their daily lives and impacted those past memories that they couldn’t get back to. War. 

Memories are created as a result of the experiences we have had in our lives. Reflecting on the past as it was and how it was encountered. However, there are memories of uncontrollable things. Things that happened where you had no idea how or who caused them. Memories that show you the true evils of humanity. Are these memories just simply everyday reminders of how you could have avoided them from happening? As war went on, the more inhumane it became. Memories of interactions with the people occurred such as, “I remember a little boy with a plastic leg. I remember as he hopped over to Azar and asked him for a chocolate bar. When the boy hopped away, Azar clicked his tongue and said, one leg for christ’s sake. Some poor man ran out of ammo.” (O’Brien 29). This was the moment of realization when soldiers realized this war wasn't only affecting them but also everyone around them as well. People that had nothing to do with the war. Azar knows that the kid won’t ever be able to live the same life ever again. These memories made them realize the things that could’ve been avoided. They thought about their fun childhood like playing sports, games and going on hikes. However many were lucky to survive, many people experienced harsh deaths. Such as , “his jaw was in his throat, his upper teeth and lips were gone, his one eye was shut.” ( O’Brien 86). These harsh memories remind them of the importance of how fast things can change. Reminding them about the importance of time. Cherish the moments you have with people because you don't know how their future looks in front of them. O’Brien doesn't stop but thinks about this because he knows about how much damage this will cause to the family. To lose a son. Not only does he lose his memories but the entire family does as well. Memories were a way to bring and connect people together through laughter or stories. The death of young men, however, made them realize that bad memories often lead to bad lives. Now the people continue living their lives carrying the emotional and physical stress and problems from the incident. They had used their memories to make up for the ones the boy will never create. It made the soldiers wonder if they ever affected a child’s life and future like this boy. 

People also utilize memories to demonstrate character weaknesses. They exploit these memories in a way of demonstrating their strength now. The memories helped them become stronger.  A vivid thought that made O’Brien a better person was,” I remembered how the bullet had made a soft puffing noise inside me. I remembered lying there for a long while, listening to the river, the gunfire and voices, how I kept calling out for a medic but how nobody came and how I finally reached back and touched the hole.” (O’Brien 142).  This memory showed how at times, no one was there to support him. As much as he cared and supported others, he never had anyone looking over his shoulders. The memory was engraved into his head to always help others. He wanted to help others although there wasn’t anything in it for him because of the first-hand experience he had to go through.

As said earlier, war had everlasting effects on others. Sometimes even leading a person to become crazy or metnaly ill. As Rat experienced the memories of killing and death on the battlefields of war. He often had no other way to get rid of the anger. The sadness in his body that has been building up ever since the first dead body he found. As this led him to be crazy, “ he stepped back and shot it through the right front. The animal went down hard, then got back up and Rat took careful aim and shot off an ear.” (O’Brien 56).  The usage of imagery in this quote, to give an idea of how mad Rat was. He wanted you to understand he was letting out his anger from all the memories that were building up. The effects of war leave a mark on them mentally. To always have that fear in the back of their head and messing with how to react to it. O’Brien often struggled to communicate his anger within his friends. Often resorting to one solution to fix it. By killing them. “ Afterward, in an awkward moment, I said, "Let's kill Azar." Jorgenson smiled. "Scare him to death, right?".What a movie!"I shrugged. "Sure. Or just kill him." ( O’ Brien 145). O’brien is saying how he treated his friends the same way as the enemy did to them, As to making a death resulting in death. Furthermore, he tries to blame the others and turns to a toxic state of delusion where he couldn’t express his emotions properly and just got memories of how he was treated. . Hence this was an effect of the war and memories of how they used to treat people. The memory of how he was treated by the enemy led him to think those who disrespected him in any way deserved the same treatment or worse. 

Therefore, O’Brien shows in The Things They Carry, that memories of death, killings and civilians had an effect on these people daily and wasn't something that just disappeared.  It causes distress to each and every soldier differently causing a lot of self-deterioration overthinking things as their fault and as something that they could have prevented. Having these memories lead them to go crazy or be very unstable in the years after the war. In that case then, memories that were carried, whether they were good or bad, affected them all in different ways. Even if they didn't notice it at first.