ideas : POV,DETAIL,FLASHBACK

The Things They Carried, A Secret Way for Coping

PTSD, is a form of traumatic stress frequently shown in war veterans. “The Things They
Carried” is interesting in a number of ways which will be discussed, but the main idea of this
essay is that in the book's entirety it is a coping mechanism for a war veteran with PTSD. ideas
that hint at this is the P.OV. the book changes into, flashbacks, and characters.

by telling us in the book for instance when O'Brien goes from 1st person to 3rd he could be
telling us in a way that he might be losing or trying to gain his sanity for example for when he
goes from a quick transition when he goes back into a flashback O’Brien says “he was playing
catch with Rat Kiley, laughing, and then he was dead” (O’Brien,pg78 line13” and this could
shows us how he is in shock because he is v - ​sanity

And another key point is how he goes into detail when he mentions any of the characters but
when he does talk about the characters their already dead because O’Brien says “we crossed that
river and marched west into the mountains. On the third day, Curt Lemon stepped on a
booby-trapped 105 round”(O’brien,page 78 lines 11-12) and as a result, talking about his friends
death he is coping with it by - ​dead already

He talks about and how in his flashbacks he goes into talking about his friends and how they died
in a terrible way by mentioning “he was playing catch with Rat Kiley, laughing, and then he was
dead” (O’Brie, pg78 line 13) and this evidence can support my idea of his PTSD surfusing from
his book because this shows a common occurrence in his book it shows us how he talks about
seeing his comrades and how they are having fun and then he sucks you back in by saying how
they died from a bullet or from stepping on a bomb -​common occurrence in PTSD
Giving these points he is trying to cope with his PTSD by telling us in his book about his
memoirs he has about his friends and their deaths and what would happen if none of them had
died and how he would react if they were still alive if he was not scared of being in the war -
reconcile with his guilt