In The Things They Carried, there are many different themes. Multiple themes repeat themselves though. A big theme that I noticed in a few of the chapters was the ambiguity that Tim O'Brien showed. I say this because because in a couple of the chapters, he couldn't really decide whether to tell his daughter the truth or not, but we don't really know if he killed the man or not. It was as if Tim was scared to tell his daughter, which is understandable, but in another chapter it was as if he thought one way, he would admit to killing the man, but if he thought another way, then he'd deny killing him. This theme is important in the book because it provides people with a different way of thinking. It shows what some people go through after a war and how traumatic it can be to them. I believe that many people experience things like this in their life, not to this level, but just to a point where they can't make up their mind about a certain thing. A personal experience that I've actually had with ambiguity was when my grandma passed away. Obviously it was her time to pass and she was in a better place, but for a while after she passed away. I felt as if i could've done more to help her before she passed. Things like seeing her more and making sure she was keeping up on her health, i felt like there was something more i could have done, but it obviously it wasn't my fault. It was just her time to go and I eventually accepted this. As said before, there were a couple stories where O'Brien tried to explain the death of the soldier he killed, but he just could not make up his mind. On page 172, O'Brien says, "And I can say, honestly, "of course not." Or I can say, honestly, "yes." This really showed the theme that I was talking about.
Since many soldiers were in a bad state of mind after being back from the war, a big question I had throughout the book was, what is the suicidal rate for soldiers after returning for the war. According to journalist Nikki Wentling of 'Stars and Stripes', 20 veterans actually take their own lives everyday. This is actually false though because this doesn't only include veterans. There are actually active duty service members, national guard, and reserves committing suicide at a high rate. It just really makes you wonder the tole that the military can take on some people. These numbers are just staggering to me. It doesn't make sense that the VA, or even hospitals are doing more to prevent this from happening. There needs to be a stronger enforcement of testing for mental illness often during duty, and especially after they are done serving.
 |
| Rate of suicide: veteran to civilian ratio |
Source:
Wentling, Nikki. “VA Reveals Its Veteran Suicide Statistic Included Active-Duty Troops.” Stars and
Stripes, www.stripes.com/news/us/va-reveals-its-veteran-suicide-statistic-included-active-duty-troops- 1.533992.
how do you think the suicide rate can be lower?
ReplyDeleteClearly it would be hard to do, but I just think that if veterans or active duty members talked to a counselor, or were required to, the rate could possibly go down.
DeleteJoey, your research question is very similar to mine. I think it is insane that this number is still so high. I think this is a huge issue in our society and more attention should be taken to this. Testing and more money needs to be put into this issue to make this number smaller.
ReplyDeleteI agree that they should have more support for veterans once they get out of the war. The picture that you added is very interesting comparing the number of suicides between veterans and regular civilians. I think that veterans should be watched after the war to see how they are dealing with life after the war.
ReplyDelete