The Things they carried
...soldiers who take pleasure in hurting. By this time Mary Anne has completely changed from the sweet innocent girl she once was when she first had arrived. The war had gotten to her and made her dirty. A real telling line comes at the end "She was part of the land. She was wearing her culottes, her pink sweater, and a necklace of human tongues. She was dangerous. She was ready for the kill." Mary Anne had went from wearing jewelry that any regular girl would like to wear to one with human tongues around it. This tells us that not only was she killing people but she was taking pleasure in it and taking their tongues as a trophy. Norman Bowker is another prime example of how the war had life changing and traumatic effect on the soldiers. The story "Speaking of Courage" helps to illustrate how much Norman is still struggling with the events that had taken place in Vietnam. Even though the war is over and he is back home safely he is unable to put everything behind and return to how he was living before he had been drafted. He just circles around the lake not really sure where to go and what to do. Even though he has been awarded several medals he feels a tremendous amount of guilt for not being able to save Kiowa from drowning. He is definitely affected with posttraumatic syndrome. Instead of enjoying being back home all he can do is replay the war in his head. He remembers everything: the shit field, how it would not stop raining, the bubbles where Kiowa’s head was under and the smell. Norman feels a need to talk about the war but he feels like there is nobody to tell. The guy that seems to listen most is the guy at the fast food place. The war has taken too much of a tool on Norman Bowker. He is effected the most out of any of the characters as he commits suicide. Norman Bowker’s character represents what happened to many Vietnam veterans who were effected by the war so much so that they committed suicide upon their return home. In the story "Nightlife" we see how the war changes the medic Rat Kiley. Throughout the book Rat Kiley is a silly kind of guy. He is a kid at heart and carries comic books around to prove it. However in "Nightlife" he too begins to lose it. The war really begins to get to him when his platoon must start sleeping during the day and traveling at night. At first Rat gets really quiet but then starts to talk a lot of gibberish about the bugs and how they are the worst part about Vietnam. "the worst thing in Nam was the goddam bugs." The night time was really getting to him. There was no stars or moon to be seen, just pitch dark. "black that God must’ve had in mind when he sat down to invent blackness." Rat Kiley started to constantly scratch himself. He scratched so often and hard that he would give himself scabs that he would then in turn peel and scratch some more. Being exposed to all the wounds he has had to fix up is getting to him as well. "It’s not right," "These pictures in my head, they won’t quit. I’ll see a guy’s liver. The actual fucking liver. And the thing is, it doesn’t scare me, it doesn’t even give me the willies." The fact that seeing all these gruesome injuries is having less of an effect on him is getting to him. ...