A theme I found in the last 5 chapters of The Things They Carried is Physical and Emotional Burdens. This theme is important in the book because it shows what kind of things the veterans went through after the war and the kind of suffering the majority of them went through even during the war. I have never experienced something quite like this but my grandpa served for a little bit and I know he does not like to talk about his time in the service because of the bad memories it brings back. In the chapter "Night Life" Tim O'Brien states "It was a tough time for everybody, Sanders said, but for Rat Kiley it ended up in Japan. The strain was too much for him. He couldn't make the adjustment." ( O'Brien pg. 208) Rat Kiley shot himself in the foot to just escape the war, this just shows what the men in Vietnam were going through during and after the war.
A research question I had while reading was what kind of training did the medics go through before entering the war? I was curious about this after reading "The Ghost Soldiers" because of how the two medics react when O'Brien gets shot. All soldiers went through basic medic training no matter what they were going to do in the war. After this the medics went through further training doing stuff like learning how to use an IV, healing gun wounds, CPR, and many other things. This picture shows medics practicing on another soldier during their training. Going through many different situations.
Sources: https://charliecompany.org/2014/02/22/combat-medic-training-during-the-vietnam-war/
I very much agree with about the fact that a lot of the pain that comes from these stories, is emotional pain. Rat Kiley, Tim O’Brien, and Norman Bowker all had to deal with immense amounts of emotional pain which is why I think there chapters in the book were the most meaningful
ReplyDeleteEvan, my grandpa served in the navy and he also gets pretty uncomfortable when talking about his time in Vietnam. I also asked myself the question of, what training did the medics go through? I actually didn't know that each soldier had to go through basic training, I thought that was really cool after reading your second paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the theme which you came up with. I think a very large portion of the pain, and the most long lasting pain which veterans must deal with is emotional pain.
ReplyDeleteEvan, I was interested while reading your post to find that even the normal soldiers were required to go through basic medical training. This was new information to me because I had always assumed that only the medics went through medical training. I think that this is beneficial because it allows all of the soldiers to have at least some medical knowledge in case they are in a situation where there is no medic available.
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