Ptsd is characterized as a “disorder in which a person has difficulty recovering after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event:” (Mayo Clinic) many soldiers in the book The Things That They Carried suffer from different stages of Ptsd. Two characters that experience ptsd are Rat Kiley and the narrator and author Tim O’Brien. Rat Kiley adjusts easy to being the medic and to the reality’s of war, but when Ted Lavender died Rat Kiley can no longer process the war and everything he sees. Tim O’Brien claims that he adjusted well to life out of the war, but by evidence of the book readers can see that this is not the case.
Rat Kiley is a good medic and seems to have adjusted to the war easily. He tells exaggerated stories in order to deal with what he sees. When the platoon gets switched to a night shift for two weeks Rat starts talking about bugs and bloody body parts, and starts dreaming his own death. "This whole war,' he said. 'You know what it is? Just one big banquet. Meat, man. You and me. Everybody. Meat for the bugs.’" (O’Brien 212)
Rat can’t take the war and the constant haze of death anymore so he shoots himself in the foot in order to escape the darkness and the death.
Tim O’Brien describes many different symptoms of ptsd in his book The Things That They Carried. He claims that he readjusted to civilian life easily, but he suffers from survival guilt, nightmares, and war related anxiety and depression that affects his everyday life. “I survived but it's not a happy ending” (O’Brien) O’Brien goes through the rest of his life feeling guilty for surviving and being unsure of what to say to his daughter and to himself.
Rat Kiley is a perfect example of the limits of a human mind. When Curt Lemon dies Rat has no way of pronouncing what he feels and shoots up a water buffalo to release his guilt and anger. From that point on Rat Kiley's mind starts to deteriorate. Tim O’Brien has extreme survivors guilt, this is easily seen by the way he makes up an entire life for a Vietnamese soldier that he kills, Tim can’t process that he made it out and others didn’t.
It is easy to see the upsetting effects of ptsd on soldiers in Tim’s book. The whole book is a personification of Tim’s own guilt and feelings toward the war. Rat Kiley is an example of what humans can take and what happens when they get pushed too far. Tim O’Brien is a good example of what happens when you survive the war but fight for your life after you get out.
Rat Kiley is a good medic and seems to have adjusted to the war easily. He tells exaggerated stories in order to deal with what he sees. When the platoon gets switched to a night shift for two weeks Rat starts talking about bugs and bloody body parts, and starts dreaming his own death. "This whole war,' he said. 'You know what it is? Just one big banquet. Meat, man. You and me. Everybody. Meat for the bugs.’" (O’Brien 212)
Rat can’t take the war and the constant haze of death anymore so he shoots himself in the foot in order to escape the darkness and the death.
Tim O’Brien describes many different symptoms of ptsd in his book The Things That They Carried. He claims that he readjusted to civilian life easily, but he suffers from survival guilt, nightmares, and war related anxiety and depression that affects his everyday life. “I survived but it's not a happy ending” (O’Brien) O’Brien goes through the rest of his life feeling guilty for surviving and being unsure of what to say to his daughter and to himself.
Rat Kiley is a perfect example of the limits of a human mind. When Curt Lemon dies Rat has no way of pronouncing what he feels and shoots up a water buffalo to release his guilt and anger. From that point on Rat Kiley's mind starts to deteriorate. Tim O’Brien has extreme survivors guilt, this is easily seen by the way he makes up an entire life for a Vietnamese soldier that he kills, Tim can’t process that he made it out and others didn’t.
It is easy to see the upsetting effects of ptsd on soldiers in Tim’s book. The whole book is a personification of Tim’s own guilt and feelings toward the war. Rat Kiley is an example of what humans can take and what happens when they get pushed too far. Tim O’Brien is a good example of what happens when you survive the war but fight for your life after you get out.
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